New Trials Special: Kaitou Magician Origins
by Wish-Chan
Summary: *SPOILERS* for those who haven't read beyond Ch 59 of The New Trials, by Wish-chan see profile . Who was Mizuki Kai before he became the Kaitou Magician? And what brought this waylaid thief to cross paths with our beloved Card Captor Sakura?
1. Prologue: Tanaka Mikai

_Once a generation emerges a mastermind that can execute the perfect crime and create a legacy in the criminal underworld. Though his real identity is unknown, to the police, the media and the common people, he is known by one alias, Kaitou Magician, the mysterious phantom thief. An international top 10-wanted criminal that has stolen from crown jewels to priceless paintings, the notorious Thief of the Night has taken the media by storm with his dynamic and charismatic style. He is a gentleman and a magician, an anti-hero and criminal, a free-spirit that no police can capture and no human knows the face of. But in daytime, he is simply Mizuki Kai, a reckless delinquent with no family, no friends and no conscience. But who was Mizuki Kai before he became the notorious Kaitou Magician? The thief who steals not for wealth, power nor fame…What motivates the Thief of the Night? How did one bright boy end up falling into the world of darkness? And what brought this waylaid thief to cross paths with our beloved Card Captor Sakura?_

_Now, let the story of the mysterious Kaitou Magician's origins unfold…_

*WARNING* Spoilers for those who haven't read beyond New Trials Chapter 59

**Kaitou Magician Origins Part One: Prince of Light**

**Prologue: Tanaka Mikai**

"And at that perilous moment, the just and beautiful Princess Veritas held up the Mirror of Truth for the Earl of darkness to see. A blast of blazing white light flooded the palace. The Earl of darkness screamed in pain and misery as he caught his reflection in the mirror and collapsed onto his knees."

"Then what happens, 'nii-chan?" a little girl with large gray eyes and glossy auburn hair plaited into two thick braids demanded. She tugged on her older brother's sleeve. "Tell me."

It was a mild summer day, the third of June and the girl's sixth birthday. The two siblings were seated on a wicker bench in the grassy garden of their spacious white Victorian-style house.

"I've told you this story a hundred times, Miho-hime. You already know what's going to happen next," the boy with similar gray eyes, mixed with a dreamy shade of sky blue, replied. The boy, around eight or so had a pleasant ambiance which made people feel comfortable when with him. A quiet sort of maturity as well as gentleness settled on him as he fondly gazed over his younger sister. There was no doubt that the boy pampered his little sister and treated her like an absolute little princess, though at the same time he retained a sort of quiet authority: the little girl looked up at her brother with utmost adoration.

"I forgot. Tell me again!" Tanaka Miho replied, crawling on top of her brother's lap.

Tanaka Mikai laughed and petted his little sister's auburn head. Soon, he continued to tell her the tale of the fantastic adventure of beautiful, kind-hearted and noble Princess Veritas, who with her valiant guardian prince of light, defeated and the evil magician, Earl of darkness; it was a time-old tale of how "good" was victorious over "dark," the pre-written principle rule of the universe.

"Mikai, Miho, gather for the cake," their mother, Tanaka Miara, called out, bringing out a lemon-white frosted, two layer cake with six candles. She set the cake on the wooden picnic table set up on the back garden, between the fruit punch and sliced watermelon.

Tanaka Keisuke, her husband and six years her elder, asked, "Miara, did you bake the cake?"

"Yes, I did," Miara replied, tying back her long, wavy auburn hair in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. "I envy Nadeshiko, though. Her husband is really good at cooking."

Dipping his finger into the icing, Keisuke tasted it and cringed. "Oh dear," he murmured.

Hands on hips, Miara demanded, "What does that mean, Keisuke-san?"

"Happy birthday to Miho-chan," Keisuke began to sing, off-tune as always. Mikai and his exasperated mother joined in, in tune.

After the song, Miho, standing on the chair, blew out the candles in one puff. "I wish okaa-san, outo-san, and onii-chan, and I can always, always be happy like this," she said out loud. "Forever and ever."

Slices of the cake were passed around. Their father made a big fuss about taking the piece with the least frosting. Hesitantly, Mikai took a bite of the malformed cake. It was true that cooking was not his mother's strongest point, as terrific of a writer and journalist she was. Yet, the pungent, acidic lemon taste suited him.

"Well, how is it, Mikai?" asked his mother eagerly.

"It's is delicious, Mother," he replied, smiling.

"See? Mikai said it's good," Miara told her husband.

Taking another bite of the cake, Keisuke said, wrinkling his nose, "I guess it could be worse. But it's too sour. Bleh."

"Mikai, Miho, and I all like sour things," Miara replied, tasting the cake. "Mmm… I baked it, but I say this time it's pretty good. Well, open your present, Miho-chan!"

Opening the small silver box, Miho took out a white-gold oval locket with an intricate engraving leading to a blood red ruby in the center of it. It was quite large, almost the size of her palm, and hung on a silver chain. "Wow, it's the locket that okaa-san always wore!" When she was younger, Miho always wanted to play with the family heirloom. Her mother had promised Miho to give it to her one day. "Thank you, thank you!"

Carefully, Mikai hung it around her neck, and Miho stared down at it in rapture.

Their father, whose hobby was photography and painting, was actually the president of the technology and computer software division of the Kinhoshi Enterprise. He called out as he set up the tripod, "Everyone, gather for a picture. Hurry, hurry, I'm setting the timer!"

Quickly, Miara gathered her two children on each side of her. After setting the timer, Keisuke ran up to his family.

"Outo-san, lift me up!" Miho exclaimed, jumping up into her father's arms.

"Whoa!" Caught off guard, Keisuke collapsed under the weight of his daughter, just as the camera flash went off.

They all groaned.

******

The Tanaka family was a close-knit one, living a comfortable upper-class lifestyle in a fairytale-like Victorian mansion with a spacious garden in the elite Eitoukou, the town adjacent to Tomoeda. Tanaka Keisuke, five years older than his wife Mizuki Miara, was a respectable businessman, though not as keen on money-making as his older brother of the Tanaka Enterprise. A mild, moderate man, he preferred to spend time with his family, taking photos and sketching them in charcoal or pastel in his spare time rather than pouring over market demand charts and the Tokyo Stock Exchange graphs.

To make up for her husband's patient and laid-back nature, Miara, who had always been short-tempered since her youth, was ever impulsive and driven. Rather than staying home tied down by domestic affairs, Miara had taken Keisuke's advice to continue to pursue her career as a reputable freelance journalist. She had a knack for maneuvering words cleverly with her pen, and editorial columns grew to appreciate her direct, opinionated views. Unfortunately, Keisuke was often the most direct target for her biting tongue. But he was used to it, since they had been long-time friends; Keisuke had been an exchange student at Seijou University during her junior high school days. For many years he had waited for her to succumb to him, for she had always been too spirited to admit that she felt anything for him. They spent a few years apart, each pursuing their respective dreams, he as an artist and she as a writer. By the time Miara had graduated from university in Japan, Keisuke had already finished his doctorate in Paris and was an established businessman, following his father and older brother's footsteps.

"After all, I've got to support us," Tanaka Keisuke reasoned. "The C.E.O. of the Kinhoshi Enterprise is a good friend and business partner with my father. And he offered me a position that I cannot refuse."

"Who said you have to support me?" Miara retorted, gray eyes flashing in frustration. "I can support myself, thank you."

Yet a few months of freelance journalism proved to Miara that the world wasn't such an easy place to succeed in, especially for modernistic, liberal-minded young women in the conservative Japanese society.

"Say, Miara, you know that this is inevitable. You love me, don't you? Won't you stop being so stubborn and marry me now?" Keisuke asked her when he returned from abroad. It was a romantic moonlit night, where the sakura blossoms glistened like silver.

"I'm not ready yet, Keisuke-san," she replied as always. She couldn't be like her close friend Nadeshiko who married at age sixteen. "There's so much more I have to see, so much more I have to accomplish. I have to establish my name as a writer before I am bound down by some man."

"But who says you can't achieve your goals with me by your side? We can see the world together and accomplish our dreams together. Together, we can be even stronger and greater—can't you see that?" he insisted.

"Why are you so pushy? I want to run away when you say things like this," Miara replied. "It suffocates me! Maybe you can abandon your dreams like that and take the easy road out through your father's connections, but I can't. I have my own aspirations."

Any other person would have been offended, but Keisuke knew Miara too well, that she unintentionally uttered cruel words out of her temper. "I've been waiting for almost ten years now. How much longer will you keep me waiting, Miara? I love you. I even love this obstinate side of you. But I can't wait forever. Father expects me to produce a fiancée soon, or else he'll engage me off to some horrid executive's cow of a daughter."

"Do you think I care? Why do you always plague me? I'm not feminine or nice or pretty; definitely not a suitable wife for a high-class society man such as you," Miara said in exasperation. "Keisuke-senpai, tell me, why me?"

"You haven't called me senpai since your schoolgirl days," Keisuke chuckled. "One day, you decided to turn from a whiny, selfish school girl into a charming woman. And you started calling me by my first name, just like that. Then I realized how much you had grown, and how much I love you though you always run from me."

"Didn't you have an infatuation for Nade-chan?" Miara demanded, rolling her eyes but blushing all the same.

"I did, I did; she is the most gorgeous girl that I have ever set my eyes on, damn her husband; excuse my language. My artistic heart cannot help seeing her as a muse." Now, Keisuke's eyes were full of gentleness. "But admiration does not equal love."

"True." Miara as a writer understood this very well. Like how Ryuuren was the type of man she would dream about sweeping her off feet, but at the end of the day, she would like to marry a more dependable and steady man, one who would stay by her side till the end of her days.

Keisuke stared off into the distance. "Strange how we all drifted apart over the years. Her health's not been too good lately has it? Poor Nadeshiko—she always had a weak body. We were such good friends, and now we're all separated."

"Spend some time away from me, and you'll drift apart from me too," Miara commented bitterly. "You'll find someone much more suitable."

"I've already tried, dear Miara," Keisuke replied, eyes crinkling in the corners. "And either something must be wrong with my eyes or I must love you very much if I find you more attractive than all the gorgeous, voluptuous Parisian mademoiselles and seductive Spanish senoritas out there."

At this, Miara was speechless.

Keisuke's persistence in the long-drawn courtship paid off. Soon after, they had a traditional wedding at the Mizuki temple, blessed by their relieved friends and family, and after a cozy honeymoon in Paris, they settled down in the elite neighborhood of Eitoukou in a brand new house Keisuke had built just for Miara. Those first several years were so blissful and nothing could take them away from the happy newlyweds. Their firstborn son was named Mikai. When Miara saw the bright blue-gray eyes stare up at her for the first time, she felt a maternal love that she had never felt before. Mikai was a strange infant that never cried but just stared out at the world with his wide eyes full of wonder and curiosity. Two years later, Miara gave birth to her second child. By then Mikai was probably the most alert two-year-old ever seen—he managed to jump out of his crib or end up on tabletops or high cabinets when most babies should barely be able to waddle around. While most infants played with stuffed animals and rattles, he had an affinity for shiny things and liked to poke into his mother's jewelry box or tangle himself in his father's fancy photography equipment.

The first time toddler Mikai saw his little sister, he had stood on tip-toes to see the tiny, rosy-cheeked infant bundled up in a pale yellow blanket and cradled in her mother's arms.

"See, this is your little sister, Mikai," Miara said, bending over so that Mikai could see the baby's face.

Two-year-old Mikai blinked his blue-grey eyes and peered at his newborn little sister."

"Her name is Miho," Miara pronounced.

"Mi-ho?" Mikai repeated, tilting his head. He reached out with his chubby little hands to stroke the baby's peach-soft cheeks. "Miho!"

The baby girl giggled gleefully.

"So pwetty!" Mikai exclaimed.

"Isn't she?" Miara laughed, delighted. "Take good care of her from now on, Mikai-onii-chan!"

******

"What a beautiful girl," Nadeshiko said, gently cradling an infant Miho in her arms. "I think she will grow to resemble you a lot."

"Mikai adores her already," Miara replied, smiling, gazing at her three-year-old son, whose bright auburn hair glistened in the sun as he drew pictures with crayons for Nadeshiko's two-year-old daughter, Kinomoto Sakura. Little emerald eyed Sakura had already been drawn into Mikai's toddler charm and followed him around almost as in awe of him as of her own older brother. Nadeshiko's son, Touya, was at school, already in the fourth grade since his mother had married ridiculously early.

Looking a little pale, Nadeshiko handed the baby back to Miara, who rocked her tiny, fragile child back and fro in her arms. Turning her head away, Nadeshiko began coughing.

"Are you okay?" Miara asked, concerned. "I thought your health has been improving recently."

Fumbling for her handkerchief, Nadeshiko continued to cough, her emerald eyes dark and bloodshot. Miara drew a quick breath, not having realized how her close friend's health had been deteriorating while she had been obliviously lost in matrimony and the birth of her second child. And for the first time Miara realized how far they had come since the battle against the Dark Ones.

A little less than a year later, Nadeshiko passed away, leaving her three-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son in the care of her husband, Professor Kinomoto Fujitaka. He was a good man and one of the kindest Miara had ever met, the one person who in every way deserved such a wonderful woman as Amamiya Nadeshiko.

Though she had meant to keep an eye on her close friend's children, Miara found that contact with old acquaintances were hard to keep, especially since she became occupied with raising her own children, overlooking their education, participating in her husband's corporate events and fundraisers, and pursuing her journalist career. For the first couple years of motherhood, Miara mainly wrote at home as to tend to her children's upraising. Yet, once they entered school, she found she had more free time at hand and was able to work fulltime. She had never been much of a domestic person, so she left household chores to their housekeeper and cook. Their chauffeur drove Mikai and Miho to and back from school when she and Keisuke left for work; Miara always made sure the family at least ate dinner together, so that the children never felt neglected from having both parents working. Not that they minded, since they had each other.

The fact that Mikai was so responsible and dependable reassured Miara greatly. Ever since his little sister was born, he had learned on his own to tend to Miho and keep an eye on her. He always acted a lot older than his age, impressing his parents with his superb grades, the numerous awards he brought home from school and the compliments they received from random people on how well they brought up their son. In fact, they hadn't done anything at all.

Mikai had taken up archery at age five, barely old enough to bend a bow, after watching his cousin in a high school archery competition and deciding that it was a worthy pursuit. His parents had to custom-order a tiny bow with matching arrows for him. Within a year, he was already participating in elementary school competitions, and within a couple years, junior high level competitions. Nobody ever pressured him to excel in school, yet he was recommended to take advanced courses. An excited elementary school principal called home once, stating that Mikai had scored perfectly on an IQ test and that their son was undoubtedly a genius. Though his father figured that Mikai may have inherited his mother's ambition, Mikai also had his father's selfless, generous personality. The kindness and care he showed his younger sister always was a relief to their parents.

"My brother certainly was not so nice to me," Keisuke recalled. "And we two fight all the time still—wonder where he gets such a deep heart from, smart little boy." He stroked his sleeping son's auburn head.

Since both their parents were busy with work, Mikai from an early age learned how to look after his sister. Since most days, Miara was rushing off to her office or to a press conference, it was Mikai who brushed Miho's hair in the morning and braided it for her into two neat pigtails. In fact, he was much better at it than Miara was; she was too impatient to comb out all the tangles in her daughter's hair and usually ended up snaring the comb in her hair. Before leaving for school, Mikai always remembered to pick up the two lunchboxes that the cook prepared for them. At school, he always kept an eye on Miho to makes sure she wasn't bullied or pushed around since she was prone to be weak-willed and had difficulty standing up to some of her over-domineering peers. It was Mikai who tucked Miho into bed at night and told her bedtime stories, and woke her up in the morning and made sure she was washed and ate breakfast.

"I really do wonder who he takes after," Keisuke commented demurely to his wife as they watched their son receive his first gold medal in the national elementary school archery competition. While Mikai was not a competitive boy, he undoubtedly liked to win. "Definitely not his mother, who still hasn't reached maturity in her old age."

"Don't insult my age, Kei-san; remember you'll always be older," Miara replied nudging her husband's side. "Well, having two very immature parents must have had such an effect on him. With a deep, throaty chuckled, Keisuke brushed her forehead with a gentle kiss.

So Miho and Mikai grew up to be a tight pair of siblings, inseparable for a day. And the Tanaka family dwelt in so much happiness that would soon be shattered, for such bliss rarely can last.

*******


	2. Chapter One: Tanaka Miho

**Chapter One: Tanaka Miho **

_Several years later…_

"Hey, Prince," Namuru Shidaiko, a classmate of Mikai, called out. "You've topped off another gold trophy. Who'd believe you're only in fifth grade, when you win prizes in high school level competitions?"

Shidaiko Namuru gazed upon his classmate and class president with envy. Tanaka Mikai, age ten, was already an Eitoukou legend for all the trophies he won in archery competitions. Topped with good brains and cordial manners, he was the Prince of Eitoukou Elementary, the "Great Tanaka-sama" or simply "Ouji-sama." Luckily, neither the title nor the worship he received inflated his ego, and Mikai pretty much tried to ignore the fact that he was the only one in the Eitoukou Elementary with a personal fan club.

At that moment, a third grade girl came rushing into the classroom, her thick red pigtails streaming out behind her. "Onii-chan, onii-chan!!!" She ran to her brother's arms.

"Miho-chan! How many do I have to tell you? You're not supposed to come into the fifth grade classroom area," Mikai scolded lightly. "So, what's wrong this time?"

Gulping nervously, Miho replied, "T-the computer lab was open during break so my friends and I sneaked in and played a computer game—you know the new software from daddy's company, Princess Revolution? And then I don't know what I pressed, but suddenly the computer screened turned weird and froze! If we're caught by the teacher, I'm going to get bathroom cleaning duty again!"

"Which I helped you do last time?" Mikai asked, sighing. "So, what did you do after you snuck out?"

"Well, me and my friends just locked the door and ran out," Miho said desperately. "But I think Ryoko-chan saw me, and she might tell on the teacher!"

"Miho-chan, how many times do I have to tell you that you must handle your own problems," Mikai said, half-heartedly. "Someday, I'm not going to be there to get you out of all the little scrapes you get in."

"Please, 'nii-chan, just this once?" Miho looked up at her older brother, blinking her clear gray eyes in her little girl's way, which she knew her brother could not resist.

"Just this once, okay?" Mikai said warningly.

Miho led her brother to the computer lab, which indeed was locked with an electronic number system. Out of curiosity, Shidaiko followed.

"Should I try to get the key from the janitor?" Miho asked. "He likes me so I might convince him to not tell the teacher."

"No, it's okay, we don't need keys," Mikai replied, glancing around both directions in the hallway. Quickly, he entered the code for entry into the computer lab. "It's convenient how the more high-tech the school becomes, the easier it is to break in." The door swung open. "Read about this in one of Hanada-san's pamphlets," he said when he saw the questioning look from his classmate. Hanada-san was Manager of the Kinhoshi Security Unit System. It was lucky that the school used the security system developed by the Kinhoshi Electronics, Security Department.

"I can't believe the Great Ouji-sama is really doing this, breaking the rules," Shidaiko whistled, impressed.

"This computer?" Mikai asked, pointing to the computer with the blue screen. Miho nodded, wordless, as she checked the hallways once more to check if it was clear of all teachers.

Probably at the same age he first learned how to read, Mikai had also learned java and programming language; he quickly went into MS-Dos mode and reformatted the computer. With a final enter, he then rebooted the computer. He was not the son of a computer software and technology division company president for no reason; in fact, he perhaps had more interest in that field than his father did. Oftentimes, his father took him to work, and the employees at Kinhoshi Electronics headquarters took young Mikai around the research labs and explained to the boy the latest technology—oftentimes more than they should since they thought a kid wouldn't understand all the technical information.

"Is it okay now?" Miho asked, hands clasped behind her back and squirming in anxiety.

"Yup, the problem is fixed." Then, peering at Miho with serious steel blue eyes which twinkled with mirth if you looked carefully enough, Mikai said, "Miho, don't ever make me do something like this for you again, okay?"

"I promise, onii-sama," Miho said, pressing her chubby hands to her heart solemnly, knowing this would produce a smile from her brother. "I swear on okaa-san's unwritten novel that I will from now on be a good girl and not make more problems."

"That's my little princess," Mikai said, patting his sister's head adoringly. "Now go and tell your friends not to worry anymore. Let me lock up the lab again."

Miho's third grade friends who had been peeping from around the corner anxiously, rushed up to Mikai when he exited the computer lab, exclaiming, "Thank you Tanaka-senpai, thank you!" Then they squealed and rushed into their classroom. "We talked to the Ouji-sama! Miho-chan is so lucky she has such a great brother!"

Smiling smugly, Miho waved to her brother and called out, "See you after school onii-chan—I'll go see your archery club practice!" In her excitement, Miho almost collided into a golden haired, pale girl in the long-sleeved winter sailor uniform of Eitoukou Junior High.

"Oops, sorry," Miho said, bowing low to the girl, before running into the classroom.

Without shedding any acknowledgement of the apology, the older girl kept on walking. Black-rimmed glasses did not conceal her cool violet eyes which met Mikai's for a second, before she glanced away and walked on ahead towards the library at the end of the hallway.

"Whoa, you're letting someone get away after pushing your little sister?" Shidaiko demanded.

Staring at the girl who walked off so briskly, Mikai asked nonchalantly, "Who is that girl?"

"Oh her? She's a first year Junior High student—wonder what she's doing in the elementary area. She's pretty notorious for being a real snot. Students says she's a foreigner—she doesn't really look Japanese, huh? She hardly talks to anyone, you know, and the junior high students say she's stuck up and really cold. But the boys like her—she's a beauty, after all. Ice Queen Kamura Karin."

"Kamura Karin." Mikai repeated underneath his breath. The name had a pretty ring to it.

******

Eitoukou Academy in springtime was perhaps the prettiest school campus in the Kanto prefecture, with luscious garden space and a greenhouse. The large campus was interconnected from elementary to university, though the university was more isolated from the other levels. There was a large archery court where all levels came to practice in, and the court was one of the many facilities that Eitoukou boasted of since Eitoukou Academy was especially famous for its archery club. Though Mikai had just entered sixth grade, his name was even known throughout the junior high and high school. No instructor could teach him anymore, so Mikai often lead archery classes after school.

Often, out of the corner of his eyes, Mikai caught glimpses of the golden haired girl watching the archers from a silent distant corner, away from the usual crowd of students who came to watch practices. Of all the times he saw her, she never came any closer, nor did she ever speak to another person.

"Onii-chan, what are you looking at?" asked Miho, tugging on her brother's black hakama, the uniform of the kendo club.

"Hmm?" Mikai stared down at his little sister who had come to watch his archery practice as usual.

Miho gave a little pout. "Are you really going to junior high in America?"

"No, where did you hear that?" Mikai said with a chuckle.

"Everyone's talking about how you've been recommended to an elite boarding school in the States." Miho's lower lips trembled. "It's not true, is it? You won't leave me, will you?"

"Of course not," replied Mikai. His little sister was now a fourth grader and put on little airs of superiority now that she was no longer in the bottom half of elementary school. Yet, she would always be his baby sister.

"But in a year, you'll be in junior high, and I'll still be stuck in elementary. We'll be in different campuses." Miho's pigtails drooped, and she sulked.

Patting his sister's head, Mikai said, "Silly Miho-hime, the junior high building is right next to the elementary building. It won't be any different from now."

One warm, summery day, during lunch break, Mikai perchance wandered into the outskirts of the Eitoukou elementary grounds. He saw the same girl seated on the grass, isolated from the clusters of chattering girls as usual. She was dressed in the short-sleeved white sailor uniform of the junior high division. To his amusement, he saw by her side were several small white doves, pecking away at the crumbs of bread that the girl fed them. Up close, he could see that her loose white-gold hair was shoulder length, glistening in the sunlight that seeped in through the tree branches. The rigid formality she usually maintained had relaxed, and she looked at peace with the gentle summer breeze blowing on her face. Quietly, Mikai approached nearer until he was close enough to reach out to her. Finally, the girl noticed him and jumped back, startled.

"Why'd you sneak up like that without a word?" she demanded, her thin shapely eyebrows furrowing down. "It's rude, you know. And what are you doing on junior high grounds—aren't you in the elementary division?"

"Sorry," Mikai said. So the ice princess could speak. Her words showed no trace of a foreign accent, though she looked so foreign. "I was fascinated by the birds and didn't want to scare them off."

"What birds?" the girl asked.

"Why, the doves that were…" Mikai blinked and looked again. Indeed, the birds were gone, instead replaced by four white handkerchiefs. "Wow, how did you do that?"

"Do what?" she repeated, crossly. "We're not allowed pets at school anyway."

"It's okay, you can trust me not to tell anyone," Mikai said, smiling. "Do you know other magic tricks too? You're Kamura Karin-senpai, right?"

Even Karin had a hard time resisting to Mikai's smiles. So she pushed her glasses up her nose and replied curtly, "I don't know how you know my name, and I hate busy-bodies."

"Ah, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Ta—"

"You're Tanaka Mikai. The Great Tanaka-sama," said Karin curtly. "Everybody knows who you are. You're famous even among junior high girls; they call you the Prince."

Not being overly fond of his nicknames, Mikai diverted the subject. "Can you change them back into doves again?"

Sighing, Karin snapped her fingers and the handkerchiefs twisted to look like a pair of wings, then turned back into fluttering white doves. "Now will you go away?"

Ignoring her abruptness, Mikai exclaimed, "Amazing! Can you teach me how to do that too? It's like real magic."

"Real magic?" Karin scoffed. "This is only trickery and illusions, deceiving the eye."

"I've seen you at the archery court often," Mikai said, ignoring the older girl's rudeness. "Why don't you ever come closer to watch or actually try out shooting yourself?"

"Because I don't feel like it," Karin replied shortly.

"I'll tell you what," Mikai said, petting one of the doves that pecked curiously at his shoelaces. "Next time you come to the archery court, let me show you how to hold a bow and shoot. And you can teach me a few magic tricks in return."

Before Karin could decline the offer, the lunch bell rang and break was over.

"Well, I have to head back now. See you again, Kamura-senpai," Mikai said, nodding his head in an informal bow, and waving goodbye.

As Karin watched the tall boy, two years younger than her but somewhat more mature than boys his age were, she realized why he was admired by so many in the school. She had expected the Prince to be more arrogant and cocky; instead, he was an excellent conversationalist who didn't leave the opponent feeling stupid and was able to make people fall under his charm with a single smile or the twinkle of his cloud-gray eyes. Was it an act? It didn't seem like it, for his eyes were very sincere. She liked how he looked at her directly in the eye without flinching, though it also made her feel uneasy. From her pocket, she drew a deck of Tarot cards. She picked out a card.

"An interesting boy," she murmured, smoothing her dove's feathers. "Though I don't like people like him at all. Too pure and good." Her turned card revealed "The Magician." She shook her head with a crooked smile.

******

As captain of the elementary archery club, Mikai oversaw practices and helped supervise students when their instructor was occupied. Nonetheless, there were times when students were distracted because archery was a disciplinary sport, and at that age, children held a short attention span.

A group of students in the gymnasium had gathered around a boy at one corner. Eitoukou Academy was a private school located in one of the wealthiest districts in the prefecture and its students consisted vastly of rich young boys and girls who would inherit their family's business. Amidst an environment of open social stratification and hostility and rivalry amongst the children of the leader's of Japan, Tanaka Mikai was one of those rare figures that was liked universally by students of both sexes. Perhaps Mikai's dignified presence commanded that he be treated with distance and respect, and that reputation served as umbrella for his little sister as well. But on the whole, elementary students could be quite malicious and spiteful to the scapegoats of the school, the kids who looked different or came from a socially different background.

One unlucky boy, a grade below Mikai, was often the target of older bullies who found him an easy target because he could never argue back. This boy wished with all his heart that he could be someone like Tanaka Mikai. Nobody dared to insult Tanaka Mikai.

"You're so fat and useless—a waste of space, Tomoaki," taunted a pigtailed girl. "Let's see you jump—the entire gym will shake."

"L-leave me alone!" cried out a chubby, bespectacled boy with mousy brown hair in an unfortunate bowl-cut and a gym uniform that was unfortunately too tight around the stomach and thighs. "Or else I'll t-tell on the teacher!"

"Yeah, crybaby Tomoaki-kun," added a boy one grade lower, poking the chubby boy in the stomach. "Go tattle on the teacher again."

"Look, Buta-Tomoaki is blubbering again," stated another boy gleefully. He spun a basketball around his finger then threw it at Tomoaki. "Catch, Piggy. Can you catch, or are your bear-paws too fat?"

Tomoaki ducked and the ball hit his side. He whimpered. "S-stop it!"

"S-stop it!" mocked the first girl. "Poor Piggy-wiggy. How big is your bento today? Let me guess, does it take up your entire desk?" She jabbed Tomoaki in the belly. "Or is it in here already?" She sharply poked him again in the side.

"It hurts!" Tomoaki said, sniffling.

"Back off—captain's coming," whispered one of the boys to the pig-tailed girl.

Mikai walked through the crowd of students who made for him and stared at the boy who sat crouched on the ground, trembling, glasses askew. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Tanaka-sama," said the pig-tailed girl, stammering in front of her idol. "That boy was talking back to us for no reason. He's only a fifth-grader and was being rude to us."

Frowning, Mikai turned to his classmate. "Shikaido-kun. You're supposed to be practicing—what are you doing here?"

"C'mon, Tanaka-kun. We're just having fun. This underclassman here was just standing around getting in our way," replied Shikaido Namuru.

"This is a gym, not a playground." Mikai frowned as he saw the drops of tear dribble down the bespectacled boy's face. "Shikaido-kun, the instructor was looking for you—it seems like you ran off on cleaning duty yesterday."

"Shoot," muttered Shikaido.

"The rest of you, you're not part of the archery team. Please leave this area. If I ever see you giving this boy a hard time, as president of the student body, I will make sure to address this issue with your homeroom teachers and the Parent's Board."

Tanaka Mikai's voice was full of authority and the girls and boys shamefacedly scattered off.

Mikai knelt down in front of the sniffling boy. "What's the matter?"

"I-I'm not crying," replied the boy, readjusting his horn-rimmed glasses.

"The spring pollen gives my eyes a hard time too," replied Mikai, smiling gently. "It's a problem when I practice archery outside. And your name and class?"

"I'm Akagi Tomoaki, from class 5-C," replied Tomoaki.

"I'm Tanaka Mikai, 6-A," Mikai said extending a hand.

"I know," said Tomoaki glumly. "Everyone knows who you are. You're the ouji-sama, captain of the archery club, student body president."

"I know you too." Mikai ran a hand over his head bashfully. "Well, I mean I recognize your name. You're the one who writes the sports columns in the school newspaper, right? Akagi Tomoaki-kun."

"Y-yes," stammered Tomoaki.

Mikai smiled. "I always look forward to reading your articles—when I read them, I think, ah, this is a person who really enjoys sports. And your articles always are very observant too and your commentaries have so much humor and insight."

"Ah, well…" Now, Tomoaki was blushing bright red to have been complimented by the great Tanaka-sama. Nobody ever read his articles because the journalism club was perhaps the most unpopular club in the school.

"Well, you were hanging around the basketball court. Do you play, Akagi-kun?" Mikai picked up the basketball and twirled it around his finger.

Tomoaki shook his head. "I'm too fat. I can't run. During gym class, no one wants to pick me for their team, so I always have to sit on the benches and watch during games."

"But I think you like basketball a lot?" Mikai said. "I've seen you in the bleachers watching the basketball team practices before."

Tomoaki nodded. "Michael Jordon is my hero—someday, I would like to jump as high as him and dunk the ball into the hoop."

"Why don't you join the basketball team then?" asked Mikai.

"People would laugh at me," muttered Tomoaki. "Besides, I wouldn't even pass tryouts. And they'll make fun of me."

"How can you say that without even trying?" Mikai questioned. He spun the ball around his finger one last time, then casually dribbled the ball up to the three point line, where he made a clean shot towards the backboard. The ball whooshed through the hoop and bounced three times on the floor before Mikai caught it again.

Tomoaki looked up in awe—he'd never seen an elementary schooler make a three-pointer before. "How'd'you do that?"

"Concentration and focus," replied Mikai.

"Easy to say from a champion archer," muttered Tomoaki.

"Akagi-kun," Mikai said, passing the ball gently to Tomoaki, who caught it to his own surprise. "It took me years to master archery. I practiced till my fingers bled. I practiced from the crack of dawn until sundown. I practiced till my arms were stiff and my legs numb."

"No way—I thought you were a natural," replied Tomoaki in disbelief.

"That's what I want people to believe. Life is an illusion. People see what you want them to see," said Mikai, smiling. "Now, you try getting the ball in, Akagi-kun. "Just concentrate with all your might and picture the ball going in." Carefully, Mikai positioned Tomoaki's stubby fingers around the ball, over his head. "Bend your knees and release!"

The ball spun up in the air, and bounced against the backboard, then swayed dangerously around the hoop. Finally, it fell in through the hole, rolling back towards Tomoaki's feet.

"It went in," whispered Tomoaki. "It really went in!"

"It did!" Mikai grinned, patting Tomoaki on the back.

"I felt some sort of breeze—it was as if something outside of myself swept through the gym, and put the ball inside the hoop," said Tomoaki, exhilarated. "I want to do it again and again. I want to make many many balls into the hoop. And someday, when I grow taller, I want to dunk like Jordan."

"Well, you can start practicing now for that day then," said Mikai with a gentle smile that reached to his eyes that he usually reserved for his little sister. "But by the time you are dunking the ball, people would call you a natural—no one would know that you've been practicing hard since elementary school. That can be our secret."

Akagi Tomoaki, age ten, nodded. Then, he stared up at the hoop and grinning widely which greatly changed his pudgy features.

Mikai liked practicing archery by himself after club activities ended because usually during practice, he was busy helping out other students. For him, _kyudo_ was a very relaxing sport and it kept him levelheaded and cleared his mind of worries.

That afternoon, as he as fit an arrow to his bow, Mikai sensed that someone was watching him. Everyone had already left. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of girl with golden hair pulled into a loose ponytail, standing in one remote corner of the court, trying to hide behind the door. Turning to Kamura Karin, he waved. She looked away, pretending not to see him.

Yet, Mikai ran up to her and exclaimed, "You did come!"

"So what?" Karin said, not matching Mikai's enthusiasm.

Mikai dragged her over. "I'll teach you then; come over here and choose a bow. Find one with a grip and weight that suits your hands."

Despite Karin's reluctance, Mikai dragged her to the court and demonstrated how hold the bow, fit the arrow to the shaft, keep the hands steady, and shoot the target.

"Very good," Mikai said, when Karin made her first attempt.

Scowling, Karin replied, "The arrow didn't even hit the board."

"It's okay, it's still within the range," Mikai reassured. "Most beginners have a trouble drawing the bow. You have good form."

"Funny coming from someone who can hit bull's eye five times consecutively," Karin said, as she made her second attempt.

"See, much better!" Mikai stated.

"Why do you bother doing this?" Karin asked after ten more tries. Despite herself, she had to admit archery was a lot more difficult that it looked, and sweat was dripping down her neck. "It's dreary, just standing here and aiming for the far target."

"Is it?" Mikai asked. "Well, it may be boring to some but I like it. It's so simple, having one target and simply having to aim for it. No complexities, no other worries. You just have to concentrate on your objective and continue to practice over and over again until you have the hang of it. All you have to do is shoot forward. And then, your goal is in your hands."

"Sure it's simple. But I certainly hope that's not your life philosophy, for it sounds like it," Karin said, one corner of her lips curving up.

Mikai laughed, not mockingly, but with carefree ease. "Will I disappoint you if I say it is?"

At this, Karin was taken back and almost smiled. "No, not at all. I wouldn't have expected any less of you."

"Wow, you smiled," Mikai said, blinking at the transformation in the upperclassman's face.

Abruptly, Karin handed Mikai back the bow and arrow, picking up her bag and mumbling, "I have to go." Then she hurried out of the archery court.

Sighing, Mikai resumed practice.

******

"You are persistent, aren't you?" Karin sighed, when Mikai turned up again the next time she was seated under the willow tree, having jumped over the wire fence separating the elementary and junior high school campuses. Again, she was surrounded by doves, isolated from the rest of the junior high students during lunch break.

"Good afternoon, Kamura-senpai!" Mikai greeted, helping himself to a seat next to her.

"I got curious with the whole archery business. But that was a one time thing," she replied coolly.

"You're welcome to come practice any time," replied Mikai, smiling.

"I prefer to be left alone when studying, you know," Karin said bluntly, returning to the book she had been reading.

"Sure!" Mikai said. "Don't worry, I have things to do also. I was looking for a quiet place to work." From his bag, he fished out his laptop and began typing away.

From the other side of the fence, they heard girls shrieking, "Oooh! Where did Mikai-sama go? I swear he was coming this way. I packed lunch for him!"

Without paying any heed, Mikai continued to be type away on his laptop.

"Shouldn't you better go back?" Karin asked, rolling her eyes. "Your fan club is making a big fuss because you've disappeared."

"Well, let's hope they don't find me" Mikai replied, looking up from the MS-DOS screen.

Was he joking? "I can't believe you are that ouji-sama of Eitoukou," Karin muttered, turning the page of her hardcover book. One of her doves perched on her shoulder. Another landed on top of Mikai's auburn head.

Smiling, Mikai looked up. The dove pecked at his hair. "What's his name, Kamura-senpai?"

"_She_ doesn't have a name," Karin replied curtly. "I don't name animals. They don't need names."

"Poor thing," Mikai said, stroking the dove which had hopped down to his finger. "Why, because you're afraid that if you name them, you might get too attached to them?"

"Huh?" Karin looked up at Mikai for the first time since he had taken a seat next to her. Then she said scornfully, "Don't say such idiotic things. Why would anyone get attached to stupid little birds? You know their brains are the size of peas, and they only stick to me 'cause I feed them."

"Really? They seem to like you very much," Mikai said. The school chime rang, and he looked up. "Time for class, I guess."

"Go along," Karin said, turning another page of her book, leaning back against the tree trunk.

"You're not going to class?" Mikai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Karin replied shortly.

"Kamura-senpai?" Mikai called, as he walked over to the fence. He stared at her hard with his calm blue-gray eyes.

"What?" Karin slammed her book shut. "Oh fine, I'll go to class then. This book was boring, anyway."

Grinning, Mikai swung himself over the high fence with ease. Shielding her eyes from the glaring sunlight with her hands, Karin looked up at that lithe form soar through the air for a brief second before landing with perfect balance on the other side. From the other side of the wires, he waved. "See you after school in the courtyard, Kamura-senpai!"

Picking her book bag up, Karin walked away, slowly, toward the junior high building. She muttered, "So persistent. How annoying."

******

While, Mikai had long since grown accustomed to his mother and father's consistent squabbling, he realized that there was an increasing tension between his parents as of late. Tanaka Keisuke was a temperate man, and it was short-tempered Miara who lashed out and triggered an argument. Usually, Keisuke would just patiently listen to Miara rant at him before she ran out of fuel. Then, the two would make up with laughter and a family dinner out at their favorite Japanese restaurant. Tanaka Keisuke was a man of laughter, the kind of person brought laughter to the room. However, these days Keisuke had been unusually taut and weary. Mikai could tell because his father no longer sketched pictures in the evenings or took the children out on the weekend to the museum or zoo. Oftentimes, he came home late at night reeking of tobacco and alcohol long after he believed his children to be asleep. Keisuke had quit smoking back in college after an especially intense scolding from Miara.

On days when their parents were engaged in a heated argument, Miho would come to Mikai's room with wide eyes and chin wobbling, clutching her teddy bear. "Otou-chan and 'kaa-chan won't get a divorce, will they?" she would ask.

"Don't be silly. They love each other," Mikai would tell her.

"Why are they shouting at each other?" Miho would sniffle.

"Because they're adults, and adults sometimes have disagreements. But that doesn't mean they don't love each other, Miho-chan."

That night, however, Miho was wordless, shivering in her yellow pajamas. She simply crawled into Mikai's bed, burying her head in his chest to drown out the shouting across the hall from their parents' master bedroom.

Mikai smoothed Miho's tangled copper-red curls and covered her ears with his hands. He could hear the muffled conversation through the walls.

"I don't like him at all, that Kinomoto Fujishika-san," his mother said.

"He's onii-sama's good friend," replied his father in a level voice. "He wants to help the company. We've got to trust him."

"Why do we need a loan from him? I don't trust him one bit—we can talk to the banks! We can manage—I have my savings and our summer house and..."

"Miara, let me handle this! Don't make it anymore difficult than it is. I know what I'm doing—I'm the president. I can't let the company go. Kinomoto-san can save the company—he's willing to help me out."

"But it's so sudden—he wasn't willing to help before. Why now?"

Keisuke burst out, "I have things under control—there's nothing for you to worry about!" This was the first time Mikai ever heard his father raise his voice.

That night, Miho fell asleep tucked in her brother's arms. But long after a dead silence filled the house, Mikai stayed awake, watching his little sister's chest heave in and out in deep slumber.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************


	3. Chapter Two: Kamura Karin

**Chapter Two: Kamura Karin **

"What are you reading, Kamura-senpai?" Mikai asked, looking over Karin's shoulder. By now, she was almost used to him always showing up beneath the willow tree on the junior high campus on days he didn't have student council meetings. Nonetheless, she had been startled—when had he crept up behind her?

"Nothing," Karin replied, slamming her book, peeved that she had been caught off guard. "Didn't I tell you I don't like nosy people? Why are you always bothering me? Don't you have anything better to do?"

They both looked up to see the stream of girls across the fence shouting, "Where did Mikai-sama disappear to again? We must give him our cookies and congratulate him on winning Nationals!"

Sighing, Mikai swung open his laptop and resumed his project, not paying any heed to the distracting environment.

Their lunchtime repose underneath the tree had become routine, and Karin couldn't even get mad at Mikai because he never did bother her at all; he always had work to do, and when he spoke, she gradually learned to respond naturally. He never demanded anything of her, and she found that she actually missed his quiet presence on days he had student council meetings.

Little by little, she found herself unwillingly staring at the gentle-featured boy more and more often, observing his various little habits and mannerisms, the way the wind ran through his silky auburn hair, the way the corner of his eyes crinkled when he smiled, the way his longer fingers flew over the keyboard when he typed, so that she could barely trace its movement. Out of everything, she admired his hands the most, very un-childlike hands. Most boys she knew had short, stubby fingers with dirty with ragged nails. Mikai's hand were long, his fingers slender and agile, and he moved them with such a grace. Like a magician's hand.

"Do you have a question, senpai?" Mikai asked, still typing.

"Huh?" Immediately, Karin was embarrassed to have been caught staring. "N-no!"

"Really?" Mikai continued to type.

Overcome by curiosity, Karin finally asked, "What are you always doing on your laptop?"

"Programming," Mikai replied.

"Programming?" Karin repeated. "For class?"

"No, just random various projects," Mikai replied, saving his work. "For my father's company—mainly computer games, and also a government database hacking program."

"Eh?" Karin's pale violet eyes turned round. Then she remembered she herself said that she hated nosy people and pretended to resume reading. Once in a while, she peaked over Mikai's shoulders to check what he was doing.

"Kamura-senpai," Mikai said after a while. "Won't you teach me some magic tricks?"

"Why do you want to learn?" Karin asked. "It's just a stupid, useless pastime."

"If it's so useless, why are you always reading books on famous magicians and explanations on their tricks?" Mikai asked.

Karin blinked at her shut book, which had been covered with protective white paper, hiding the title. The boy was much sharper than he looked. Caught off-guard, she rambled, "Well, it's awfully boring, and I'm not that great of a teacher since I don't know that much, but if you still want to learn…"

"Just tell me what to do," Mikai replied.

For a second, Karin's eyes sparkled like forget-me-nots behind her glasses. Her usual languid composure slipped, and she sat up. "I warned you it may be tedious and boring. Well, first of all, magic shows are half illusion and half acting and poise. Eye contact with the audience is most important. So is sleight of hand. Keeping this all in mind, you must never repeat the same magic trick to someone or else you lose the novelty of it. And…"

Over the next couple of weeks, Mikai learned how to conjure up flowers from midair, pull a flock of doves out of a top hat, and make scarves dance on their own. In return, Kamura Karin showed up to more archery practices, and Mikai patiently taught her the basic form and discipline required in archery.

"It's autumn already, Kamura-senpai," Mikai commented. They both stared up at the tree and found the leaves the color of Mikai's hair. He sat down in his usual spot underneath the tree.

"I thought you weren't coming," Karin set, setting aside her book. The previous day during archery practice, she had hit the closest yet to bull's eye, which was only the red ring, but still an improvement—of course it was only a one-time lucky shot, but Mikai had reassured her that practice made perfect.

Meanwhile, Mikai had mastered all the magic tricks that Karin knew—she had been surprised at how quickly Mikai had picked up all the tricks that had taken her years to learn and perfect.

"Ah, I'm just a quick learner," Mikai had laughed sheepishly, when she grudgingly mentioned how adept he was at the magic tricks she taught him.

"Well, the weather will be getting to cold to sit out here anymore," Karin said, longingly fingering the withering grass. "Anyway, I've taught you all the magic tricks I know. And I don't think you can teach me anymore in archery either—I've got the basics now, at least."

"Oh, there's always more to learn," Mikai replied, shuffling a deck of cards in a wave motion, then letting them pile on one palm.

"Where did you learn all those card tricks?" Karin asked. "I don't think I taught them to you—I can't do card tricks."

"From my father," Mikai replied. "He had an interest in—err—gambling, among his many hobbies. Don't tell okaa-san though—she'll get mad. Oh, should I teach these card tricks to you? These are really simple."

Sighing, Karin said, "I've tried to do all those fancy card stuff. It'll look cool when I do my Tarot card readings. But my hands are just not suited for the magician business—my fingers are too short and stubby." She held up her hand. Mikai placed his palm against hers. His fingers clearly extended over hers. "See, you have a magician's hand. You're fingers are long and supple. That's why you're better at the magic tricks that I taught you than me, your teacher. No matter how I try, I can't achieve the same effect."

"It's just a small handicap on your part," Mikai replied, taking away his hand. "You still have much more knowledge on the theory behind those tricks than me, anyway. You never told me why you're so interested in magic though. Is your dream to become a magician?"

Karin stared at the sky avoiding eye contact.

"I'm sure you can become a marvelous one," Mikai said.

Since home was no longer the tranquil sanctuary it once was due to his parents' constant bickering and school was a constant pressure with teachers piling on recommendations for junior high, the archer instructor coercing him to sign Olympics applications and students always chasing him hounding him about student council meetings or various other reasons, lunchtime with Kamura-senpai was a rare moment of repose throughout the day. One time, Mikai found Karin sitting by the willow tree, not reading for a change. He watched her lay out a deck of Tarot cards on the grass. "Can you actually read the future with that?"

"Not exactly. The future is constantly changing," replied Karin. "But I can see certain obstacles and players in those obstacles in forming. Sometimes."

"So, that thing actually works?" Mikai asked.

Karin turned to Mikai, annoyed. "What, you're skeptical? I can read your hand if you want."

"No thank you," replied Mikai with a grin. "I don't believe in fate and that sort of stuff."

"Well, everything happens for a reason," stated Karin. "And there's nothing you can do to change that. If you know what is ahead, you can at least prepare for it."

Mikai grinned crookedly. "What's the fun in life if you know what'll happen in the future? What'll come will come."

"That sounds sort of irresponsible and uncharacteristic of you," Karin remarked wryly.

"What is characteristic of me?" Mikai asked, kneeling in front of Karin. "Who is 'Tanaka Mikai' in your eyes?"

"The Prince of Eitoukou. You live to please others—but you are happy when those around you are happy."

"So that's how you see me," murmured Mikai. He looked rather pensive. "My mother once told me that those who are happy will see simply their own reflection in the Mirror of Truth."

"What is this Mirror of Truth?" asked Karin.

"The Mirror of Truth is a family heirloom from my mother's side. Legend has it that it belonged to a princess of a far off kingdom. She asked her lover who was a mirror-maker to make her a mirror that showed her reflection exactly as she is. After many years, the mirror-maker finally completed this magic mirror."

"So, what happened when she looked at her reflection in the mirror?" Karin asked.

"When she looked in the mirror, she found simply a woman in love with a man, not the princess of some land. And she went off with her love, the mirror-maker," replied Mikai.

Karin had to smile now—Mikai was a natural storyteller. "And so, your family is in possession of such a precious magical mirror?"

"Miho and I used to pretend that the mirror was an enchanted mirror when we were little, a gateway to a fantasyland or a magic glass where we can see the past or the future," Mikai grinned lopsided. "But no matter how hard we looked, we only saw our own reflection in the mirror. So legend is only legend."

"Or maybe your mother is right, and those who are truly happy see but their own reflection," remarked Karin with a wistful smile.

"Perhaps," replied Mikai.

"So, how do you perceive me?" Karin asked.

"I don't know," Mikai said honestly. "Though you're here, sometimes, I feel like you're not here. I don't know if that makes any sense. I want to get to know you but I feel a barrier the closer I get to you. But I can't tell if it's a barrier from you or from me."

At this, Karin stared at the younger boy with eyes like a cloudy sky that seemed to watch her with the solemnity of an old man. Though Mikai was popular, he did not have any close friends. He was friends with everybody hence friends with no one. "Maybe you're right—we both have a barrier around us. I'm always looking towards the future, forward and forward, to the day I can get out of here," replied Karin. "You are someone content with the present, so you live in the present, never looking ahead, never looking the to the past, because your past is your present. My past is a mystery, my present is a living hell, and I can only look towards the future, to the day when I have control over my own life and no longer have to be susceptible to what is written on a deck of cards."

Mikai stared at her hard. He had always sensed that there was an air of uneasiness around Karin, something he had never felt in anyone before, not his family nor his friends. Till now, he had never been able to pin it—it was an air of desperation present in so many people but unfamiliar in Mikai's closed world. Kamura Karin was unhappy and all these months of knowing her, he had never realized it until now. For the first time, he felt helpless in the presence of another human being.

In Mikai's moment of reflection, Karin had finally finished arranging the Tarot cards in the Celtic cross and carefully flipped the cards. Seeing the final card, she frowned.

Mikai caught the expression. "What's wrong, Kamura-senpai?"

"N-nothing," Karin stammered.

******

"Tanaka-kun, you should consider taking accelerated science next year when you enter junior high. With your grades, you should easily get a scholarship to Tokyo University in a couple of years," the teacher said. "Have you considered what you want to be?"

"Not particularly," Mikai replied, shifting uncomfortably in front of the teacher's desk. His homeroom teacher liked to do this about once a month: call him to the teacher's office and discussing his records with him, prodding him to excel further. "I might want to become involved in the government. Maybe some form of law-enforcement agency. Or I'm interested in computer programming also. Government secret service is also an option."

"Ah, well, with your talents, anything is a possibility. You can become a professional archer for all that matters, though it would be a waste of your brains. We did get several calls from the Japan Olympic Commission—they're interested in whether you want to enter the upcoming Olympic Competitions." The teacher giggled nervously.

"I am not interested," Mikai said politely. Every month or so, various sports managers tried to make him sign contracts for the Olympics. Even the Kinhoshi Enterprise had shown an interest in sponsoring him for the competitions. As long as archery remained a hobby for him, he would enjoy it, but once people tried to make a profit off him, he drew the line. Luckily, his parents left it up to him to pursue what he desired at the level and pace he desired it.

"If you say so…" the teacher sighed reluctantly.

"Then, if you would excuse me, I have some papers I have to finish for student council," Mikai said, bowing and finally escaping.

The leaves had fallen off the branches of the trees and blanketed the little slope in a carpet of rich amber, gold and orange. Karin, with her golden hair blowing in the breeze, head buried in her book, was not there today. Mikai sighed. Perhaps he had grown dependant on Karin's company. She was the one person at school who did not seem to want anything from him; she just let him be.

When she did not show up the next day nor the next, he became worried.

"Sorry, but do you know where Kamura Karin-senpai is?" Mikai asked one of her classmates, when he found a moment to slip into the junior high building.

"I-I, don't know," the girl stammered. "Nobody really notices whether she comes to class or not, anyway."

Signing, Mikai turned around.

"Oh my gosh, is that boy the Prince?" the junior high girl squealed to her friend. "Are you sure he's younger than us?"

"Why in the world is the Prince looking for that horrid Kamura Karin? Maybe she bullied his little sister."

They giggled.

Next, he tried Karin's homeroom teacher. "Sensei, I had a question."

"Anything for you, Tanaka-kun. You know how proud our school is of your great accomplishments in the recent archery competitions…"

"Thank you. Sensei, I was just wondering if you know where one of your students, Kamura Karin is—she hasn't been in school for a couple days."

"Oh, Kamura-san?" the junior high teacher wrinkled his nose. "She doesn't have a steady record like you, which is surprising considering she's a scholarship student. Her mother hasn't called in saying that she was sick or anything. I've given up on that girl. Why can't every student be a model student like you, Tanaka-kun? I must say, I would be proud so see you taking advantage of the accelerated science program next year—"

"Excuse me, is it possible for you to give me her address?" Mikai interrupted.

"Well, since it's you asking—" The teacher flipped through the directory.

******

"Miho, can you go home by yourself today?" Mikai asked his little sister after school.

"Why?" Miho demanded. "Onii-chan promised to help me with my art project tonight."

"I'll help you tomorrow, all right?" Mikai replied. "I have something important to do."

Though Mikai had never used public transportation before since the Tanaka chauffeur always drove Miho and him to places, he did not have much trouble figuring out the bus schedule and taking the bus to the neighborhood that Karin lived in.

When he got off the bus, he was taken back by how shabby the neighborhood was. The houses were built closely together and were run-down—some even had cracked windows. There was trash piled outside near the sidewalk and very few trees and shrubs grew in the sparse lawns. How could anyone live in such a cramped, ugly house?

Finally, he came to the address the teacher had given him. The narrow two-story house was the exact same construction as the rest of the houses in the street, gray and dingy. He was hesitant to knock on the door. There was a crashing sound inside, like a plate shattering. Then he heard a muffled male voice shout, "You brat, you piece of trash! I'm done with you. Get out of this house, now!"

It was returned by a young female voice, full of venom. "Fine, I'll leave then! I hate this place. I hate you!"

There was a sound of a slap, interjected by a piercing shriek and then a thud.

Mikai stood at the door, paralyzed.

"Don't hit her!" a third voice sounded.

"Stay out of this, woman!" This time, there was the sound of a body being flung against chairs.

"Okaa-san!" There was a brief silence. "How dare you strike my mother? Do you think I'll forgive you for this?" A voice full of anger, hysteria and bitterness. Such a tone he had never heard before in another human.

There was another startling crisp sound of a slap and a muffled scream. More whacks, more screams. Then a scuffling sound, furniture being moved around, chairs and tables crashing to the floor. A baby began to wail.

The man shouted, "Get out of here, you good-for-nothing bastard's child. _GET OUT_!" Doors slammed. The baby wailed louder. There was the sound of footsteps, a scuffling in front of the door, and the door swung open. A girl with golden hair streaming out loose and tangled behind her, streaked out of the door, half-tripping as she scuffled to put on her shoes. She slammed the door behind her and ran off.

Coming to his senses, Mikai chased after her. "Kamura-senpai! Kamura Karin!"

They were nearly in the next block by the time he could catch hold of her arm and stop her. She swerved around, revealing her tears to him for the first time. Karin did not have her usual glasses, and her hair half-covered her bruised cheek; her cracked lips were swollen blistered. He knew the rest of her body must have fared worse. Though he half expected her to push him away, instead, she flung her head into his chest. Then did he realize how hard she was trembling, how frail and thin her shoulders seemed and how hard she was sobbing. Gently, he wrapped his arms around her, somehow sensing that she probably didn't even have any recognition of who he was, that she just needed someone to lean against at that moment.

He held her without saying a word until she was calmer.

"Take me away from here, Mikai," she whispered finally. She didn't even look surprised to find him there.

"I'll take you away, I'll protect you, so don't cry," he murmured back. He knew that Karin always acted upon her own whim and impulse, that she had little use for him. But, more than anything, he wanted to do all that was within his power to make her smile, to wipe the tears from those soft rose-blushed cheeks. "Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere."

******

For the first time in his life, Mikai played a delinquent and missed school. The next day, he received his first school warning but he did not care. All he could think about was that would be able to see Kamura Karin during lunch break.

"It's not like you, Tanaka-kun. You missed your history finals," said his teacher. "Your parents were frantic searching for you—"

"I apologize, sensei. Something like this would never happen again."

"You're usually such a responsible student," replied his teacher. "I've heard that you've been hanging out with junior high's Kamura Karin—she's had trouble with the school before…"

For a second, a fierce gleam came over his blue-gray eyes that his teacher was not sure if he liked. "It had nothing to do with her. I can take the test today. I won't disappoint you again, sensei," said Mikai calmly. And the teacher dismissed him.

He did not care of the whispers of students in the hallway—the Prince had been scolded by the teacher. Supposedly he was hanging out with that horrible junior high girl. He did not care that his mother had reprimanded him. All he wanted to do was go to their secret spot under the willow tree and see Kamura Karin with her light lavender-marble eyes.

Perhaps Mikai felt a little worse after his conversation with his father, who awaited him that evening, sitting in his basement studio, a smock over his long-sleeved soft cotton polo shirt. Tanaka Keisuke's rust-gold hair was slicked back and through gold rectangle-framed glasses, his brook brown eyes solemnly met his son's eyes. "So, I heard you played truant yesterday, Mikai-kun."

"I'm sorry for making you and okaa-san worry," said Mikai bowing down.

"So, are you willing to share with me where you were?" his father said, setting down his sketch pad. The basement basically served as his father's art studio and quiet thinking spot. The open space was filled with unfinished canvases and jars of paints and boxes of old art portfolios from his college days, as well as all the junk that Miara did not want to be seen upstairs.

Mikai stared at his feet wordless.

Sighing, Keisuke remarked, "You're going to be a junior high student next year. You and Miho are growing up so fast. Of course there'll be things you won't want to share with your old dad. I was like that in my school days. I was reckless and carefree and tried to avoid my father and brother at all costs. But you've been such a good kid Mikai, better than I ever hoped to be. It's all right to let loose a bit and just do what you want. Just, let us know where you will be at, so we don't have to worry something happened to you. Miho was up crying all night."

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again, otou-san," Mikai said. Yesterday, he had completely forgotten about Miho.

"Mikai, it is natural to bolt once in a while. You don't always have to conform to what you think people expect from you," his father said.

"Pardon me?"

"You can be perfectly content with everything you have yet still feel something lacking." Keisuke shut his eyes, perhaps thinking of his own far-off school days than Mikai standing before him. "Society has wrought a golden cage for us. It is safe inside the cage. But it is only human nature for a man to wish to be free."

Something strange settled inside Mikai's stomach, like the impact of a fly that had flown into a glass window that it did not know existed. It was like Karin had said—she desired to grow up so that she could be free to do as she willed. Yet, his father was a grownup but was not free because he was an adult.

Hands clasped in front of him, Keisuke asked sternly, "So, was it girl?"

"Otou-san!" Mikai turned red. Now, he could see his father's eyes twinkling behind his glass frames.

"You're a big boy and can have a good man-to-man conversation with me now." Though Keisuke had seemed more haggard from work lately, when he smiled, the corner of his eyes crinkled, and Mikai was glad to the father he knew back. "You were with a girl, huh? Ah, you're at the age already. Good times, good times."

"Don't tell okaa-san—she'll never let me hear the end of it!" Mikai exclaimed in horror—he only too well knew how meddlesome his mother could be and with her acerbic tongue, she would tease him endlessly.

"Boy do I know that better than anyone else—she witnessed me getting rejected by my first love and never let's me hear the end of it till this day." Keisuke clapped his son's back. "This is a man-to-man conversation just between the two of us."

Mikai nodded with a grin. Both Miho and he had heard the story numerous times from their mother. Their father, when he was a college student, had worked as the advisor for Seijou High art club. There had been a school production of the Phantom of the Opera, a collaboration between the high school and junior high division, and as the art club advisor, Keisuke had been the set designer. At that time, junior high student Miara had her eyes set on a high school exchange student from Hong Kong, who was the first violinist in the orchestra for the musical. "The most handsome man I have ever seen in my life, and the most superb violinist," Miara declared. And the nineteen year-old Keisuke had a crush on Miara's classmate who was cast in the female leading role of Christine Daae.

"_Amamiya-san, you are my muse. Please go out with me!_" Keisuke had declared the moment he set eyes on the heavenly creature with emerald eyes and long violet curls.

"_Hoe? We're already outside. Where do you want me to go with you to?_" had been Amamiya Nadeshiko's puzzled reply.

Li Ryuuren and Mizuki Miara, who had been standing by burst out in laughter, clutching their stomach. Poor Nadeshiko glanced around, baffled at what was so funny, and Keisuke sunk to his knees in shock at the flat-out rejection from his first love. That was the beginning of the four's friendship and the memory of those golden years even time could not rob.

"Ah, youth," Keisuke declared nostalgically, staring at his son who had accomplished more in twelve years than he had in forty. In his own youth, he had never bothered to study hard. He spent college bumming around in a bohemian lifestyle until his father threatened to cut off all tied with him. The time he spent at Seijou University was probably the most fun he had ever had, and the years he spent studying for his masters in Paris were stark and dreary in contrast. Only through family connections was he able to enter into a managerial position at Kinhoshi Electronics and Technology Division with practically no business background, and he parachuted to the company's top position within ten years again because of the Tanaka and Kinhoshi alliance. Thus, it was hard not to be so proud of Mikai who was intelligent and mature beyond his years, but humble and kind-hearted. Mikai was like Ryuuren, but with a good personality, good old Ryuuren who had told him before leaving Japan, _"I think you have a chance with Miara. Don't give up."_ Those words had kept him hanging on those lonely years in France. The news of Ryuuren's death came not too long after Nadeshiko's funeral. Keisuke stared at the piles of dusty boxes in the basement. Thank goodness Miara was still by his side. His dearest friends were gone, but now, he had his family. His family was everything.

There were footsteps in the stairwell, and Miara poked her head into the basement. "What are you two boys whispering about down there?"

Keisuke and Mikai glanced at each other, lips tight.

Hands on hips, Miara sighed. "Well, come up for dinner—it's so hard for us to gather together these days with outo-san always busy with work."

Miho skipped down the stairs and flung her arms around her father's solid waist. "Otou-san, piggyback ride!"

Laughing, Keisuke swung Miho up on his back. "Oomph—you're getting too big for this, Miho-hime."

Watching Miho wrap her arms around her father's broad back, Mikai followed his mother up the stairs to the dining room. It saddened him thinking that Karin never had this, never received a warm hug from her father, never felt that home was home.

Because Mikai's pillar was his home, and without his family, he was nothing.

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	4. Chapter Three: Tanaka Keisuke

**Chapter Three: Tanaka Keisuke **

It was one bleak, muggy day, a day that Mikai would never live to forget. He was abruptly called out to the principal's office in the middle of history class. A formidable but kindly man, the Eitoukou elementary school principal offered him a seat in the office and waited gravely. Soon, Miho joined him in the office, clearly confused.

"What is it, 'nii-chan?" she whispered, shifting her feet nervously. "Are we in trouble?"

The principal shook his head, the wrinkles in his wizened face creasing even more as he said, "I do not know how to bring this news on you two. Someone's coming to pick you up soon. Your mother will explain things better."

A cold chill ran over Mikai's body. "Something's happened to father?"

Without words, the principal placed a hand on Mikai's shoulder and replied, "I'm sorry."

"What happened to otou-san? Wasn't he on a business trip?" Miho asked, looking back and forth from the principal and her brother. "Tell me! What happened to otou-san?"

At that moment, there was a sharp knock on the door. The Tanaka chauffeur bowed his head. "I've come to escort Mikai-sama and Miho-sama home. The mistress is waiting."

"Hush now, I'll carry your bag," Mikai said, prodding Miho along, struggling to keep his voice from trembling. If he panicked, Miho would panic also. "Mother will tell us what's going on."

Though it was only a ten minute drive from their school to home, it was the longest car ride ever for Miho and Mikai—they remained completely silent through the entire ride, and Miho did not let go of Mikai's hands once, even though she refused to meet his eyes.

They rushed into the living room, where their mother awaited them, sheet-white and with dark circles under her eyes, but shoulders composed.

"Mother! What happened to father?" Mikai demanded.

"I just received a call from Hong Kong," Miara replied, her lips trembling. "Miho, Mikai—your father was in a car accident. He passed away an hour ago."

There are moments when some unexpected news is so traumatizing, so painful that it almost seems surreal, like it is only a story, a bad dream to wake up from.

As his mother burst out crying, crumpling over on the floor, Mikai stared at the family portrait hanging on the living room walls, blankly. His father, mother, little sister and him, smiling, staring back at him as if nothing had changed. Except that his mother was sobbing out loud for the first time in his recollection. Except that Miho was on her knees, hands clutching his pants, uncannily silent. And now, he was the man of the family. His father, his father who hated his job, who loved his family, who told him that it is a natural desire for a man to wish to be free, the father who was the pillar of his family would return no more. Miho just watched their mother blankly, looking more dumbfounded than ever, desperately praying their father would pop up from behind the door and tell them it was all just a really bad joke. Biting his lips to keep from crying himself, Mikai knelt down and drew Miho close to him and embraced her tightly. She began to wail into his chest, furiously, almost as if she did not know why she was crying.

The next couple of weeks were always a blur for Mikai. His father was supposedly buried in Hong Kong, so his mother and relatives went up to the family temple to pray instead of having a proper funeral. He stayed at home with his sister.

He and his sister returned to school in a week and the principal deemed Mikai a frightening person for he did not loose the same smile he always wore, the same composure, the same poise. When his classmates asked about his absence, Mikai merely shook his head and did not reply, though most of the school already knew about the family tragedy.

To his relief, Miho was doing better than he had expected—or maybe she still had the vague notion that their father was away on a business trip and would return any day now as a surprise. It was only every night that Mikai sat by her bedside, smoothing her forehead to help her fall asleep—she couldn't fall asleep unless he was beside her.

What worried him the most was their mother. Their mother, who was always cheerful, determined and joking was reduced to tears and silence—she stayed at home all day, lying in bed, refusing to eat meals.

"Okaa-san, you have to eat," Mikai pleaded, nudging the tray with a bowl of porridge.

Miara shook her head weakly. "I'm sorry Mikai. I'm not very hungry."

"Okaa-san, here," Mikai urged again, lifting the spoon laden with porridge up. "Just one bite, 'kaa-san?"

Managing a faint smile, Miara relented and attempted to eat the porridge.

"I paid the electricity and the telephone bills on my way back from school today," Mikai said. "And your editor called earlier on—he said that you can take as long as you need to recover."

"Mikai, what will I ever do without you?" Miara asked, gazing at her son with misty eyes. "Such a good boy. I'm sorry I'm not being a better mother to you and Miho."

Shaking his head, Mikai replied, "No Mother, this is the least I can do. Father would have expected it of me. Okaa-san just has to rest a little and recover."

"'Nii-chan? Is 'kaa-chan okay?" Miho asked from the door way.

"Hush, Miho-hime," Mikai shushed. "Mother is sleeping. Let's go out of her room—I'll tell you a story."

"Okay," a much subdued Miho replied, tugging at one end of her braid which had become unraveled.

******

"I haven't seen you around lately," Karin commented when the considerably pallid prince came to their usual meeting place.

Mikai lay back down on the grass under the customary spot, letting out a long sigh. "I've been busy lately."

"I know," Karin replied, fiddling with a dry grass. "I heard about it…"

Mikai remained silent.

"I'm sorry," Karin replied, softly.

There still was no reply from Mikai.

"So… how are things now?" Karin asked.

"How are things?" Mikai repeated vaguely. "How are things… I wonder."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Karin sighed. Usually Mikai did all the talking; he was always the instigator of conversations, he was always the one with a bright, encouraging smile, cheering her up. She had watched Mikai over the past several days, and if she hadn't been observant, she might have noticed no change. Yet, she could see now what kind of strain Mikai had been under. The automatic smile on his lips had dropped, and she could see his gray-blue eyes were not twinkling merrily as usual, but they were filled with something unusual, a look she had never seen in his eyes. And she could almost swear it looked like anger and hate. A sort of bitterness that should not be present in someone as kind and gentle as him.

Mikai sat up again and turned to face Karin. "How are things? Let's see, my mother is always lying in bed, a nervous wreck, my little sister cries her self to sleep every night, pesky relatives are running in and out of the house, offering to lend a hand but more interested in if they can swindle some money from us. Oh, and supposedly, my father is in great debt to C.E.O. Kinomoto or something, and we have no means of paying such a great sum of money, but I can't really talk to my mother about it because she has enough worries already." He let out a bitter laugh. "What else? I'm sick of smiling as if nothing is wrong, and I'm sick of everyone whispering behind my back, pitying me."

Startled at the outburst from the usually sunny-natured boy, Karin stared at her lap. "You sound more angry than sad."

"That might be right," Mikai said. "I'm more angry at my father dying so suddenly, leaving things like this, than sad that he is no longer here. And I'm angry at myself that this is the only thing I can do—complain, store anger and resentment for the world, angry that I can't be any stronger, can't take any action."

"It's okay to be angry at the world," Karin murmured, staring at the sky. "Anger keeps us strong, on our feet. Anger keeps us moving. Anger keeps us from being lost in despair and hopelessness. Be angry, Mikai. Even if you can't show this face to your mother or your little sister, you can show it to me. I understand." Tentatively, she placed a reassuring hand on Mikai's shoulder.

She wondered why the painful expression on his face hurt her more than anything else she had seen before. He buried his head in her chest as she patted his back soothingly. Like a man, he made no sound, but like a boy, his shoulders trembled as he sobbed hard. If he looked up at that moment, he would have seen tears streaming down her face too. Though she had been so convinced that what happened to this boy had no consequence to her, she was disturbed to find how much she cared for him, how she wished the best for him, for he was one of those rare, truly good people that you came across in life. She wished with all her heart that the shadow she could see cross his future was a mistake in her Sight.

"Why are you crying?" Mikai asked, peering at Karin's pretty violet eyes.

"I'm not crying," Karin retorted, rubbing her eyes with her sleeves. She was surprised to see that Mikai was smiling as brightly as ever as he teased her. The boy was a natural poker-face and it sent a chill down her spine knowing that he could put on this expression when his insides must be in turmoil.

"You look very pretty even when you're crying, Kara-senpai!" Mikai stated, using his pet name for her when they were in private. It was an abbreviation of her surname "Kamura."

Stroking Mikai's soft hair, Karin said, "I'm not letting you cry on my shoulder anymore."

"Thank you, Kara-senpai," Mikai said, standing up, somber again. "I don't know what I would do without you. You don't have any expectations from me. I can just be myself with you."

"You know, you have a lot more bitterness stored behind that angelic face of yours than you let out," Karin commented.

Mikai smiled crookedly and his eyes gleamed like periwinkle orbs, more gray than blue. "Maybe I am a devil inside. Who knows?"

************************************************************************************************************************************************************


	5. Chapter Four: Tanaka Miara

**Chapter Four: Tanaka Miara **

The weeks that followed their father's death hit their mother the hardest. She was bed-lain most of the time, and the doctors were baffled at the cause of her illness. They attributed it to mental stress, anxiety and depression.

"Will okaa-san get better?" Miho asked, tugging on her brother's sleeve.

"Shush. Don't disturb her." Mikai sighed. "Go to your room and finish your homework, okay?"

"Mikai, is that you?" Miara asked tiredly. "I'm sorry. I missed your archery competition today. How did it go?"

Shaking his head, Mikai replied, "That's not important, okaa-san. I received a call from Kinomoto-san's secretary. He told me that all of father's debt could be canceled in exchange for the Princess Rosa Mirror."

Miara turned her head sharply. "Did he say that? Impossible."

"Mother," Mikai reasoned, taking a deep breath. "I know that mirror is a family heirloom and therefore priceless. However, at this rate, we won't even have a roof over our heads once the debt collectors come and mortgage our house. The best deal we have is give up the Mirror for now in order to cancel the debts, and I swear, okaa-san, that we'll get the Mirror back. Just wait until you regain your health and I'm a little older. It won't be that long."

Shaking her head, Miara replied, "No, Mikai, you don't understand the importance of the Mirror. We can't give it up, no matter what. I'll find a way to pay off the debts. I have my own savings, too."

"No Mother, it's not enough," Mikai said, trying to hide the panic in his voice. His mother had not yet seen the sum of the debt that his father had been in. He could sell the house, all the furniture and paintings, and design computer programs for the rest of his life and not come up with enough money. One thing he did not understand was how his father, who had always been so prosperous and well-liked, who had been generous towards his employees and friends, could have fallen into so much debt. True, Tanaka Keisuke was not the best of businessmen, and he had lead a rather extravagant lifestyle without counting the spending, but the extent of debt that had stocked up over the years baffled Mikai; it did not add up. Yet, he knew that Kinomoto Fujishika had easily enough power to take away all of his family possessions and land them on the streets without second thought.

******

"Onii-chan, let's sit in the back! It's like we're going on a field trip!" exclaimed Miho, climbing up the steps to the public bus.

"Be careful, Miho," Mikai said, boosting her up the bus steps. The family Mercedes Benz had been confiscated by the creditors and this was the first time Miho had used public transportation to go to school. The Tanaka household no longer could afford a chauffeur, cook and maids. Only their old head housekeeper remained to care for Miara.

"How dare you tell me I can leave, bocchama?" she stated to Mikai. "You may not remember but I changed your diapers."

"But you know our family situation—" Mikai said.

"I'm not staying for money. I will stay until I am no longer needed," the housekeeper replied. "Miara-sama's state is fragile right now—the deceased master wants you to continue with school. Leave the house to me."

"Thank you," said Mikai, holding her hands in gratitude. "I will repay the debt some day."

Meanwhile, after their long-time chauffeur bid a tearful farewell, Mikai told Miho, "The car's getting repaired, so we'll have to take the bus for a while,"

"How fun!" exclaimed Miho, swinging the plastic bag with the cold bento from the convenience store that Mikai had bought in the morning. Wide-eyed as she saw the students in various uniforms, the men in suits and mother with babies, she moved towards the back of the bus till she found a seat.

Mikai stood beside her, holding onto the metal rail with one hand and with the other ran a hand over Miho's tangled red curls—he had to wake up early to get their breakfast and lunch at the convenience store and hadn't gotten a chance to brush his little sister's hair in the morning. From his pocket, he fished out a blue ribbon and tied her hair back in a ponytail. Miho looked up and held up her juice carton. "Do you want some, onii-chan?"

"It's all right, Miho. You have it," Mikai said. He realized that Miho's coat was missing a button. Carefully, he ran his hand over Miho's hair again to smooth it out—he had forgotten to bring a brush. When was the last time she had a haircut? She was growing again and would need a new uniform soon. How was he going to pay for their school tuition for next semester? He couldn't even pay for Miho's fieldtrip fees. He was running out of the cash prize from the gold medal in the Youth Archery Competition.

"Kamura-senpai, do you know how to sew?" Mikai asked, panting from running to the junior high section, breath leaving puffs in the chill air.

"Yes—why?" Karin, leaning against the willow tree, tilted her head up, scarf around her neck and hat covering her hair. Even though it was cold outside, it was better to sit out there in peace and quiet than going to the junior high cafeteria.

Mikai held out Miho's coat that he grabbed from her locker during lunch break and a handful of spare buttons. "Can you sew on the buttons—I can't seem to get them on straight."

"Give it to me," Karin replied.

Fascinated, Mikai watched Karin deftly sew on the buttons with black thread, then snap the thread with her teeth. "Wow, you're really good," said Mikai with a grin. "Thanks, Kamura-senpai."

"Don't you have a housekeeper?" asked Karin, handing Mikai the coat.

"Her eyesight's not great, and she's been looking after okaa-san, so I feel bad asking her," replied Mikai, thrusting his hands in his uniform pocket.

Unwinding the navy-blue scarf from her neck, Karin stood up and wrapped it around Mikai. "Why don't you have a coat on, silly? It's freezing outside."

"I don't get cold easily," Mikai replied, voice muffled into the scarf. It smelled like lavender soap.

"Sit down," Karin commanded.

Mikai crumpled down next to her.

"Did you have lunch yet?" she asked, fumbling in her bag and holding out a plastic bento.

Slowly, Mikai shook his head.

"Here, eat this—I'm not hungry," Karin said. She held out chopsticks and opened up the bento.

Taking the chopsticks and bento, he stared at the rice and egg rolls. Then, he began shoveling the food in his mouth. He had in his short years tasted the finest cuisine from all over the world, but nothing tasted as good as that simple, cold bento.

"Drink," Karin said, pouring green tea from her thermostat and watched Mikai, the prince of Eitoukou who always sat upright and elegantly sipped tea, gulp down the drink like the rest of them commoners. "'Kai, did you have breakfast?"

Mikai shook his head.

"Did you even have dinner last night?"

Again, Mikai shook his head—he had been working last night and missed dinnertime.

"When was the last time you had a meal?" Karin demanded in disbelief.

There was a pause. Mikai tilted his head and replied, "I don't know… I think I had a pork bun yesterday morning."

"There are so many girls dying to make a bento for you," Karin stated sharply. "You can just accept them instead of forgetting to eat."

"I only want yours, Kara-senpai," murmured Mikai, heavy lids shutting. "Please wake me when the bell rings. He rolled off on the dried grass and fell asleep. Gently brushing a lock of auburn hair from his face, Karin covered him with Miho's coat and watched his boyish sleeping face.

******

"Tanaka-kun, I'll leave the store to you," called out the manager of the 24-hour convenience store. "The boxes need to be put away in the storage room and you'll need to restock Aisle 5."

"Sure, leave it to me!" replied Mikai, putting on the blue cap. He rolled up his sleeves then hoisted up the boxes to carry them to the back room. Night shift at the convenience store was the most convenient. Miho was asleep, and there was no chance that he would bump into students from Eitoukou. Since there were few customers past midnight, he could finish off his homework for the next day. He could also get discount prices for the deluxe bento set for Miho in the morning, when he got off from his shift, and sneak back home at dawn before Miho woke up, and maybe catch an hour of sleep before school started.

"Welcome!" he called out, hurrying to the counter when he heard the door open. A girl with pale blonde hair in an unbuttoned black coat over the Eitoukou Junior High uniform entered.

"'Kai, what are you doing here?" she asked. Then, she stared at the blue cap and the blue and white striped shirt. Surely Mikai couldn't be working here? The coat buttons, the lack of meals, the bus… Karin realized then that the Tanaka household really must be in destitute—it had not been just a rich boy's whining when Mikai stated that his family was in debt. She figured that even with debt, Mikai's family at least had enough to live off of; maybe not as lavishly as before, but enough to sustain a livelihood. But could it be that Mikai could not even afford lunch? He bought the deluxe bento set for his little sister so that she did not know the financial situation the family was under and then cut all expenses for himself. He had outgrown his winter coats and could not afford a new coat; rather than let on that, he went around coatless and stated he was not cold. He was the Prince. The Ouji-sama did not get hungry or cold. He would not wear a coat with sleeves too short for him even to keep himself warm in the winter, and he would not let his sister lose face to her classmates and buy her all the things that ten year old girls desired.

"Kamura-senpai!" He dunked the cap brim lower over his face.

"You're an elementary student—you can't be working this late at a convenience store!" exclaimed Karin.

"Please don't tell anyone—I can't afford to get fired from this job," Mikai exclaimed. "I lied—they think I'm fifteen."

"I guess you look old for your age," Karin remarked skeptically. "Goodness, what will your classmates say if they could see you now? The Prince of Eitoukou working the graveyard shift at a convenience store, moving heavy boxes. It's heartbreaking."

"What are you doing up at this hour?" asked Mikai, restacking the cup noodles on the shelves.

"Getting some fresh air. I had to get away from home," replied Karin. "I'm at my limit."

At this Mikai sighed. "I know what you mean."

Grinning, Karin, bent over and helped unbox the cup noodles onto the shelves.

"What are you doing?" asked Mikai.

"Two hands are better than one," replied Karin. "When does your shift end?"

"Five."

"I'll stick around and keep you company." Karin grinned. "Then, let's escape."

"To where?"

"Anywhere."

Mikai gazed out at the sparkling cobalt blue ocean and the girl in the Eitoukou Junior High uniform of gray pleated skirt and navy blue vest over a white shirt. Her legs were bare, and the waves lapped at her feet. He took a deep whiff of the salty air and then exhaled.

"Come in!" called out Karin, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.

Seated on the sandy shores, Mikai shook his head. "The water's freezing! You'll get frostbite!" Karin ran up and then sprinkled the icy salt water at him, taking a seat beside him on the white sand.

"I love the way the sand feels beneath my feet," stated Karin, wriggling her cold toes into the sand. "In my past life, I bet I was a mermaid. But they say I'm descendant from fairy-folk, I heard, straight from the Lady of Avalon."

At this, Mikai chuckled. "Mermaid don't have feet, so they won't feel the sand. But you do have pointy ears—like a fairy. And you can make things appear and disappear too."

"Finally you smiled!" exclaimed Karin. "You've been looking like a dying puppy these days."

"Is that how I look like these days?" Mikai buried his head in his hands. "How pathetic. I thought I was keeping up a good appearance."

"Well, your body will collapse sooner or later if you continue skipping meals and depriving yourself of sleep," remarked Karin. "You're not like me. You're a prince. You're not cut out for this kind of lifestyle. You've had food handed to you on a silver platter and slept on satin sheets."

The winter sea was so brilliant, it could have been summer if the water lapping at their feet was not ice-cold. Mikai thought he could spend the rest of his life staring out at the every shifting ocean that yet eternally remained in the same position. "I'm no longer the Eitoukou ouji-sama. I'm no longer the son of the president of Kinhoshi Electronics. I'm not even archery champion anymore—I missed the final round, and I heard someone called Tsukishiro Yukito won. I'm just Tanaka Mikai now."

"Too bad," remarked Karin. "You're the closest thing to royalty I know, the great Tanaka-sama. Though okaa-san used to convince me that my father was of British noble blood."

At this, Mikai turned to Karin—it was the first time she had voluntarily mentioned her father whilst he had to probe for information before. He had always known she was mixed, so now it ascertained that her Western blood came from her father.

"'Kai, do you remember the first time you brought me here?" Karin looked out at the ocean nostalgically. "I asked you to take me anywhere, and you brought me here."

"Ah, that was the first time I skipped school," remarked Mikai.

"Did you get into a lot of trouble because of me then?" asked Karin, tilting her head. "I ended up dragging you here again."

"I think both times I brought you here," Mikai replied with a crooked smile. "Funny, I used to think school was so important. But another day away from school doesn't seem to matter anymore."

"Well, I've always hated this school," replied Karin. "If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't have continued to attend Eitoukou."

"You were a scholarship kid, weren't you?" Mikai asked wryly. "Which means you're pretty smart."

"There was no way my family could afford such a posh, private school," stated Karin. "I studied really hard in elementary school, and I wanted to make my mother proud of me. I didn't want to be a burden to her, because she tried so hard on her own to raise me. She gave up her youth, her life for me. So, I managed to win a scholarship to Eitoukou Junior High to make her proud of me, to lessen the burden for her." She looked at Mikai. "I know. My school records are not great, considering I'm a scholarship student. I'm surprised they haven't expelled me yet."

"Why did you stop trying?" asked Mikai. "You worked so hard to get into this school."

"In my first year of junior high, my mother remarried. Before, we were poor and barely scraping by, but we had each other. It was just my mother and me. But that man came in and changed everything." A dark shadow came over her eyes. "He hated me from the beginning. Because I look different, because he was scared of me, perhaps. Said I looked like I was possessed by something, that my fascination with the occult and Tarot Cards was heathenish. And my mother drifted apart from me, spent less time with me. I hated my step-father so much. That day you were at my house, I was going to leave for sure. I never wanted to return home again. But you convinced me to go back. For my mother's sake."

Mikai frowned. "He hasn't beaten you again?"

"I've learned to dodge better," replied Karin with a short laugh. "I can't wait till I'm an adult, and I can leave that house. Someday, I'm really going to run away from that place and the wretched town and see the world."

"But your mother…"

"She has the baby. It's me that's the problem. I'm in the way." Karin tucked wisps of her golden hair behind her ear. "You've always had everything. I've been envious of your family. It was a perfect family, the kind you would see on a Christmas card." A twisted smile came over her lips. "But now, you're the same as me. The only difference is I never had anything in the first place."

"That day I brought you to the beach, you mentioned that your father left your mother," said Mikai. "Do you know where he is?"

"No," replied Karin. "He left me nothing. Just a faded picture and my name. He named me 'Karin.'"

"So, is that why you hate your name?" Mikai asked.

Karin nodded. "It's a reminder of him. Why give me a name when he planned to abandon my mother and me and run off like that? I hate him the most in the world."

"You mentioned before he's a magician, though," remarked Mikai. "You love magic too."

Her lavender eyes narrowed coolly. "Well, his blood lies deep within me whether I want it or not. And someday, maybe this magic can lead me to him."

"You want to meet him." Mikai smiled crookedly. "You do want to see your father."

"I do," replied Karin. "I want to see what kind of wretched man abandons a teenage girl and their helpless baby out of his own selfishness."

"And then?"

"And then?" Blinking her long lashes, Karin stammered, "And then… I would want to know why. Why he abandoned my mother and me."

At this Mikai closed his eyes. "I see. Because there is a reason behind everything."

Sighing, Karin leaned her head against Mikai's shoulder, watching the sun set lower—had the day passed already? Time slipped away like the grains of sand between her fingers. "I brought you here to talk about your problems. But I'm just talking about myself again."

"I'm happy you told me about your father, Kara-senpai" replied Mikai softly. "You may hate him now. But at least you have the hope of maybe seeing him someday."

"'Kai." Karin placed her hand over his large hands.

"I'm all right. I've come to terms with it. Otou-san will never return, and I've got to save my family, somehow." Mikai's voice broke. "I just don't know how."

"You'll manage, Prince," said Karin, her eyes a tender violet like the ocean at twilight. "Because you're strong."

******

That was the last time Mikai saw Kamura Karin. He was not surprised when he turned up to the bare-branched willow tree the next day and did not find her there. When he went to her homeroom teacher, she stated that Kamura Karin had withdrawn from the school.

He visited her house for the second time. This time, he knocked on the door. A mousy woman with black hair pulled back in a loose bun, holding a sleeping toddler, answered the door. In her face, Kai saw traces of beauty that was lost in a youthful face that had aged too fast. He realized that physically, Karin must have completely taken after her father since she had little resemblance to her mother.

"I'm sorry to bother you. Is Kamura Karin-san home?" Mikai asked.

The woman glanced at Mikai's uniform. "Are you from Eitoukou Academy? You must be a classmate. Karin is… no longer here. She went to… live with her father."

"Her father?" Mikai's blue-grey eyes rounded.

"You're such a good-looking boy—I didn't know Karin had friends at school. She seemed to be doing better lately…" Karin's mother smiled nervously.

A short, balding man came towards the doorway. "Who is it, Umiko? Is it that witch-brat? Even if she comes back crawling and begging on her knees for mercy, I'll not have her back. How dare she take my money and run away after all the generosity I showed that fatherless good-for-nothing she-thing?"

"She's my daughter," Kamura Umiko cried out, turning around. "She's my daughter too…"

Mikai stared at the old man's bloodshot eyes. He used that large, hard hand to strike Karin. The man caught sight of Mikai then quickly looked away, unsettled by the young boy's cool, penetrating gaze. "Heh, is that kid the girl's boyfriend? Like mother, like daughter." He quickly stomped into the kitchen, picking his ear with his thick pinky finger.

With an apologetic nod of her head, Umiko said, "I'm sorry. If you were her friend, you would already know why she left. She left a note saying she went to find her birth father, and I couldn't stop her. I didn't deserve to stop her. But she's a smart girl, and it's not her fault that she has such a weak mother, and I couldn't hold her back any longer. If I was a little stronger, maybe she wouldn't have hated me."

"She doesn't," Mikai said.

Kamura Umiko looked up with her dark eyes at the prince-like boy who appeared in her front door like a messenger from heaven. "What?"

"She doesn't hate you," Mikai repeated. "She's always loved you and has been grateful to you. That's why she left."

Suddenly, the harsh lines on the woman's forehead eased, and she returned to being a woman merely in her early thirties. "And who may you be again?" asked Umiko to the boy who had an unsettlingly familiar grace about him.

"A friend," replied Mikai. He bowed, then walked away. Karin's mother was weeping by the doorway in relief and with the relief a sense of empty loss that only a mother who lost a child knew.

It was when Tanaka Mikai reached home again that he realized that now, he was really alone. Even Karin had abandoned him.

******

Life continued on and with the never-ending winter came bills and more bills. There was no more pretending with Miho anymore. He could no longer hide their financial situation when there was no money to pay the utility fees to heat the large house. All the rooms were shut off except for Miho and their mother's bedroom. Miho now helped out with household chores, or the best she could manage, for even she could see the strain that her always-composed brother was under. She knew that he snuck out at night and came back early in the morning and that he always bought her the best bento and ate the 100 yen onigiri himself. She did the dishes and braided her own hair. While the teachers were vaguely aware of the Tanaka family situation, it was most difficult to keep it hidden from schoolmates. With Karin gone, there was no longer a haven in school. He had taken to programming for Kinhoshi Electronics, now personally managed by Kinomoto Fujishika and missed school more often than not. Mikai would have dropped out long ago if it weren't for his little sister's sake. Rumors circulated in school that the Ouji-sama was busy training for Olympics. Meanwhile, Miara's condition did not improve in the months after husband's death. If anything, Mikai felt like he was losing her fast—she needed to be hospitalized.

Over the month, Mikai had sold five computer programs to Kinhoshi Electronics through a fake name and had learned how to invest in stocks—on lucky days, he could make ten-fold what he made off a month sweating and breaking his back at the convenience store within an hour. School was useless—he had to make money, fast, to pay off the debt. Evaluating the Tanaka tax forms, Mikai realized all the mistakes his father had made in financing. But his father had been an honest, trusting man—perhaps too trusting. He had mortgaged off the house and all his belongings for a loan from Kinhoshi Capital. He had been a generous lender in his lifetime and never collected interest.

"I can do it. I can manage," Mikai whispered to himself, shivering as a gust of cold air filtered inside. He brought his blankets to Miho's bed and spread it over hers. She was fast asleep. Poor Miho. For his sister's sake, he had to find a solution. He glanced at Kinomoto Fujishika's business card and reached for the phone.

******

"Okaa-san, can you sign this document and stamp it?" Mikai handed a document to his mother. His heart thumped.

"What is this?" Miara asked, blurry-eyed.

"Just some bills," Mikai said, swallowing the lump in his throat. _Forgive me, Mother._

Without looking over the papers, Miara stamped the document with her seal and handing it back to her son.

"Thank you, Mizuki-san," a man in a dark gray suit who had been standing in the hall said, entering the room and bowing slightly. The man next to him took the document from Mikai and slipped it into a manila folder.

Miara's eyes widened. "Kinomoto-san."

"You have just entitled the right to the Mirror of Truth to the Kinomoto family. We are very grateful for your cooperation. In return, we have canceled all of your husband's debt," Kinomoto Fujishika's secretary stated. "Your son has chosen wisely. Our men will come to remove the Mirror tomorrow—it shall be handled with the utmost care."

Giving a cocky nod of his head, Kinomoto and his secretary departed.

Bolting out of her bed with her last strength, Miara stared at her son in horror. "Tanaka Mikai, you dared trick me?"

Kneeling in front of his mother, Mikai pleaded, "Forgive me, Mother; it was for the best of the family. We would never have been able to repay the debt. We would have ended up on the streets. There was no other choice!"

Face contorted in anger, Miara slapped her son sharply on the cheek, the first time she had laid a hand on her child. "You are not my son. If you only knew what you have just done, you would have known it was better to end up on the streets."

"Onii-chan!" Miho exclaimed in horror from the doorway.

"Miho, go to your room. I need to talk to Mother," Mikai said gently, standing up and staring at Miho imploringly.

"NO! I want to be with onii-chan," Miho stated, stamping her feet.

"Please, Miho, be a good girl and listen to onii-chan," Mikai said.

Sulkily, Miho walked away.

"Mikai, my head hurts," Miara sobbed, collapsing back into bed.

"Should I call the doctor?" Mikai asked, alarmed.

Shaking her head, Miara said, "It's no use."

"Mother, what's ailing you?" Mikai suspected whatever disease had struck his mother was no normal one. The doctors said it was post-trauma symptoms and their housekeeper insisted that it was merely nerves. He told Miho that it was the flu, but Mikai knew deep inside that his mother had a disease that the best of doctors could not cure, and it was eating her from inside out. Sometimes, his mother and father had spoken of olden days that often seemed like some supernatural fantasy. They hushed up when he or Miho were around. But Mikai knew about the unnaturally early deaths of his parents' good friends, someone named Amamiya Nadeshiko and Li Ryuuren. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had been terrified that those two deaths were linked, and that perhaps his mother and father were a part of it too. "Okaa-san, please speak to me."

Miara turned her head away, still refusing to meet her son's eyes.

"Mother, I swear I will bring the Mirror back to you. I swear by my father's name that I will bring it back. So, please, regain your health, and I'll make sure that everything returns to the way it used to be." Mikai, kneeling against the bed, buried his head in the sheets.

"Leave me, Mikai. I do not wish to speak to you at this moment," Miara stated, turning her head away from her son.

Slowly, Mikai withdrew. He slowly took off the veil covering the golden-framed oval mirror hanging on the wall. The cost of his father's debt and his mother's trust in him.

_What more can I do? How could I have changed things?_

At that moment, he heard a deep, silvery and melodic voice say, "Heavy burdens for such a young shoulder to bear, isn't it?"

Mikai looked up. His mother was sleeping. Was he hearing voices in his head now?

"I must say you are one of my better-looking ancestors, though the Mizuki's have always been a fine-looking bloodline. I like your eyes. Serious and pensive eyes," the female voice continued. "You have my eyes."

"Who are you?" Mikai demanded, looking around. There was no one. He looked again into the Mirror of Truth as a pale white figure materialized within the glass. She resembled his mother greatly, though her long auburn hair was straight and she wore the traditional miko apparel. If he were superstitious, he might have been frightened, yet he remained calm as the woman gazed at him with shrewd charcoal eyes.

"I am Mizuki Mayura, of the Great Five Force Magicians," the woman replied. "And I am your ancestor."

Mikai blinked. "Are you a ghost or a dream or a hallucination?"

"I am more of a stored memory," Mayura replied. "My actual body does not exist in this world, but I have saved the last trace of my soul in the Mirror, for this sake."

"What sake?"

"Training my successor of course. Look at me in the face, boy," Mayura commanded. "Now listen to me carefully."

"Generations before you, the Great Five were the most powerful in our world, the magician's world. Amamiya Hayashi, Li Shulin, Reed Landon, Chang Ruichi and myself, Mizuki Mayura. Each of us had our expertise, each of us had our flaws. With no doubt, we were a mighty quintet. However, due to conflict in interests and personal dispute, we were torn apart. I have been waiting for a worthy successor, for things have begun to move again. The power of the stars is moving and you have been chosen to join the new circle forming by Clow Reed's successor."

"I'm afraid I don't understand the meaning of your words," Mikai said flatly at the ethereal woman whose face looked so familiar yet so godless-like.

"Do you not want to save your mother?" Mayura asked.

"Yes."

"Then you must trust me and do as I say," Mayura continued.

"How do I know to trust you?" Mikai demanded.

"You have no one to trust but me," Mayura replied. "The silver locket that your sister has is engraved with my initials in English, M.M. Those are my initials. And your first task would be to take that locket. You will find me at Mount Kumatori. Tell no one where you are going. And from now on, your life is in my hands. I promise that if you follow my words, you will learn of the means of saving your mother's life. Now, do you trust me or do you not."

_Say, Kamura Karin. So is this what it if feels like to sell your soul to devil?_ Mikai replied, chin up, "I have no choice, do I?"

It was the dead of night, and Miho had finally fallen asleep, tightly holding onto her brother's hand as if she sensed something was amiss. Carefully, he loosened her grip on him.

"Miho, don't reproach me," Mikai whispered as he stroked his younger sister's auburn curls fanned out on the pillow. "If I can save mother and you, I would do anything. So, please forgive me. I didn't want to leave you." Gently, he reached behind Miho's neck and removed the silver locket. He examined the back of the heavy locket. It was engraved with a cursive M.M. For Mizuki Mayura.

That cold winter's day, not too long before his elementary school graduation, Tanaka Mikai forever left the Tanaka mansion, leaving behind everything of his past twelve years in the house that he had grown up in with naught but the silver locket and a duffel bag with basic toiletries and change of clothes. There was no going back now.

"Good-bye Miho. Good-bye okaa-san."

A fierce look came over Mikai's steel-gray eyes as he gazed off to the distant bluish mountain slopes enshrouded in smoky clouds. He would cure his mother and get everything that Miho had lost back for her, what ever the cost. Tanaka Mikai, the old Tanaka Mikai, was no more.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Wish-chan: November 18, 2008

Finally I have posted up chapters of the Kaitou Magician Special I've been promising for years. Actually, the bulk of this special has been sitting on my desktop for about five, six years now, waiting for a chance to be released. Since we're finally in Arc Four of New Trials of Card Captor Sakura, I thought it was due time to finally reveal something about Kaitou Magician's past. It was weird going back and editing Part One because some of it was written so long ago, and I've just constantly tinkered with it over the years when I had a writer's block with the main New Trials plotline. (For record, I have a whole bunch more of chapters that I can't release yet until we reach the right point in New Trials to prevent spoilers. . Gomen.) Besides, New Trials has always been my priority.

I think the flavor and tone of Kaitou Magician Origins should be a tad bit different from New Trials. I will rate it PG-13 because I think it's a bit darker themed than most of New Trials. Part One of KM Origins has just been sort of a regurgitation of what we already know, and the new material really starts from Part Two: Thief of the Night. Like with the Legacy of the Five Forces Special, Kaitou Magician Origins exists to sort of highlight Kaitou-kun's life, not to unfold everything. (I cannot make another novel-length story for Kaitou Magician when New Trials is long enough!) If anything, this fanfic has been useful in grounding me as to who "Mizuki Kai" is, and I think it should be interesting to see how he progresses from Part One to Part Two. Thank you for reading and please contact me at as comments are what has sustained the longest existing Card Captor Sakura fanfiction and Kaitou Magician's own spin-off (KM: Thank you, thank you! From now on, let us rename the fanfic, New Trials of Kaitou Magician and Sidekicks!) and please join the New Trials group at .com/group/newtrialsring/ if you haven't already.


	6. Chapter Five: Mizuki Mayura

**Chapter Five: Mizuki Mayura**

_Tanaka Mikai, age twelve, stood in front of the fifty-story high Hoshi Enterprise headquarters in downtown Tokyo. He took a deep breath and entered through the automatic doors. _

"_Who are you here to see?" asked the receptionist. _

"_The chairman," replied Mikai. _

_The receptionist smirked. "I'm sorry boy, the chairman is a very busy man. Is there anything I can help you with?"_

"_No, I must speak to the chairman."_

"_He has no time to talk to unimportant little kids. Now hurry home, your parents must be worried for you," said the receptionist. _

"_Let me speak to Kinomoto Fujishinto-san!" demanded Mikai, slamming his fist down on the counter in frustration. _

"_Guards, take this unruly child away!" called out the receptionist. _

_Mikai struggled against the iron strength of the guard towering over him. "Let go of me!"_

_At that moment, the path from the elevators cleared as Kinomoto Fujishinto, in a crisp gray suit and maroon tie, walked into the front lobby, accompanied by his son and secretary to each side, followed by his usual bodyguard escorts. _

_Yanking free from the guard's grip, Mikai ran forward. "Kinomoto-san!"_

_Kinomoto Fujishinto blinked and stared down at him. "Do I know you?"_

"_I'm Tanaka Mikai," he replied. _

"_Ah, you're Tanaka Keisuke's son," remarked Fujishinto. "You've grown a bit. What brings you here?"_

"_I came to speak to you regarding the bankruptcy of the Kinhoshi Electronics division, and my father's debt," said Mikai. "There must have been some accounting mistake. I reviewed all the figures and all the bank accounts and—"_

"_If you have any concerns, please write up a formal statement and file it through my secretary. I don't have time to deal with every single petty issue of every single division in the Hoshi Enterprise," replied Kinomoto Fujishinto. _

"_But you're the only person who can do anything! There is no time!" cried out Mikai. "My mother is ill and our house is facing foreclosure. You've done enough, haven't you? Can't you spare me my family?" _

"_I don't see how this is any of my problem," stated Fujishinto._

_Mikai stared hard at the older man. "But he was your employee."_

"_In this world, you have to be prepared for everything at all times. It was irresponsible of Tanaka Keisuke to leave his family unprotected, and that is no fault of mine." _

"_Please." Biting his lips, Mikai collapsed onto his knees. He was trembling uncontrollably, but his voice was staid. "Please have mercy on us." _

"_You are creating an unnecessary fuss. There is nothing I can do," replied Fujishinto. _

_Mikai stared at the ground, palm on his knees. "Please, I beg you. Save my mother and little sister."_

"_Guards, escort this boy out!" Fujishinto said sharply. "You are creating a spectacle._

_Two guards seized Mikai and dragged him towards the door. _

"_Please, Kinomoto-sama, please save my family!" Mikai cried out._

_The guards flung him out on the streets. "Know your place, boy."_

_Mikai glared at the guard, who blocked him as Kinomoto Fujishinto walked towards the Mercedes Benz parked outside the building. Fujishinto's son whispered something into his father's ears and then walked towards Mikai. _

"_Tanaka Mikai-kun," Fujishika said. "My condolences for your father's untimely death."_

_He stared up at Fujishika warily. Even when he was younger, he had not trusted Kinomoto Fujishika's weasel-like features. _

_Kinomoto Fujishika watched Mikai with a thin smile. "There is a way you can save your family."_

"_How?" whispered Mikai. _

"_The Mirror of Truth," replied Fujishika. "In exchange for the Mirror, we will exempt your father's debts."_

"_Just for the Mirror?" Mikai blinked in disbelief. _

"_Get your mother to sign and stamp these papers," said Kinomoto Fujishika, his eyes gleaming behind his spectacles. "And we will release your family of your father's debts."_

_He lied. All adults are liars._

_When I was twelve, I thought the world was a just place. I thought that effort paid off and that humans were compassionate. Back then, I was naïve. Forgive me, mother. At that time, I knew not what I did. It was the first time I knelt in front of another person and the last. I swore that I would never bow down in front of another human being and never have to ask anybody for help. There is nobody who can help me except for myself. _

_That is why I could no longer stay. _

_At age twelve, the world as I knew it was completely overturned. I knew that once I left that house that I grew up in, there was no turning back ever again. And I vowed on that day, Tanaka Mikai was no more._

The climb up Mount Kumatori was a long trek, especially for a tired and hungry boy. For a moment, Tanaka Mikai paused and stared up the winding path ahead of him. The peaks of the mountain were covered eerily in purple mist. He clutched the silver locket around his neck, the locket of his ancestor Mizuki Mayura, and then hoisted up his duffel bag and continued walking. An owl hooted and he could hear the cawing of the crows in the trees. Mikai had the sense he was trespassing upon holy ground as he came upon a shrine at the top of the mountain. Cautiously entering through the red-painted gateway, Mikai circled around the premise, wondering if he was in the right place. He was starting to have doubts that Mizuki Mayura really could help him. It was too late to be having doubts now. Somehow within the past several months, he had abandoned all logic and reason. Nothing could surprise him at this point.

Clearing his throat, he called out, "Is anyone there? Mayura-sama?" His voice echoed through the mountains. "This is Tanaka Mikai. I am here as you instructed."

He squinted his eyes through the hazy mist where he thought he saw the shape of a woman emerge from the temple. When the fog subsided, he could discern the figure of a woman dressed in the red and white garb of a miko. Her long straight auburn hair was loose around her pale face, and her step was so light it was almost as if she floated.

Mikai had only seen her once before as an apparition, but he quickly recognized Mizuki Mayura, the original owner of his locket and the Mirror of Truth. Her voice had a rich, ethereal quality. "So, you have finally come, my chosen successor."

His knees were knocking together, but he boldly stated, "Now, will you tell me why you have summoned me here?"

"For training of course." Mayura narrowed her cold gray eyes at the young boy. "You better be up for it because I am not very patient and do not accept weakness or stupidity."

"Training for what?" Mikai gulped.

"Mental, physical and spiritual training," Mayura replied.

"I see." That did not clear up any ambiguities for Mikai, but he merely nodded—he did not want to displease his future training master at such an early stage. She spoke in a tone as if she was used to being obeyed without question, as expected from a priestess.

"Until you complete your training course, you will not leave this mountain. You will eat, sleep and learn here. Your training will be complete when I deem I have taught you all you need to learn," Mayura stated. "I only have one rule. You follow all my orders and not argue back."

"I see." He dropped his bag to the ground. So much for junior high. So much for the National Junior Archery Competitions. It did not matter if he flunked out of school or won another trophy at this point. In fact, nothing mattered to him anymore. He had to save his mother and find out the mystery shrouded behind his ancestry. And where better to start than from this woman who claimed to be his great ancestor, who may only be a figment of his imagination or some vengeful demon ready to swallow his soul. Maybe a month ago, he would have laughed at anyone who believed in superstition or reincarnated souls. But now, he was ready to believe anything. Anything to get him out of the nightmare that his life had turned into.

"Do you agree to my terms, Tanaka Mikai?"

"Yes, I do. I am ready to begin." Mikai closed his eyes. He was ready to say goodbye to everything that he was accustomed to and start a new life. He bowed down to the ground, touching his forehead to the floor. "Please accept me as your student, Mayura-sama."

Mizuki Mayura placed a hand on his left shoulder. "Tanaka Mikai, on this day you have been accepted as the last student of Mizuki Mayura. Learn well so my mission on this earth will be accomplished."

Thus, Tanaka Mikai's grueling training at the Mount Kumatori shrine officially began, his only physical companion stray cats, odd woodland creatures and the humming cicadas. And a nonexistent being.

"Make yourself at home in the shrine. Use what you will. This is spiritual grounds. You can expect you won't find anybody coming along this way, so you will be completely on your own. You will have to learn to become self-sufficient," Mayura said briskly.

The first night at the shrine, Mikai curled up on the bare wooden floors of the temple using his bag as a pillow and his jacket as a blanket. Mikai figured ghosts did not have to sleep. Drafts of cold air sifted in through the sliding doors, and he could see little ants crawling along. A couple times, he thought he felt something small and furry brush against his legs.

He tried to pretend he was on a camp trip. His stomach rumbled. By now, his mother and sister would know that he was missing. Would they look for him? If Mayura hadn't sworn him to secrecy, he would have left a letter, a note, any message to let them know he was all right. Then, he recalled the cold glint in Kinomoto Fujishika's eyes that day he took away the Mirror of Truth. He doubted that Kinomoto Fujishika nor the Chairman of Hoshi Enterprise, Kinomoto Fujishinto, would keep their words. Because he had been keeping track of the family accounts since his father passed away, he knew that his family had enough savings to last them a year, give or take a couple months depending on how frugal they were. But medical bills were expensive, and the doctors had not yet found the cause for his mother's illness. He clutched the silver locket he had taken from his sister. The metal warmed in his hand.

_Please be safe till I return, Miho…_

The quickest way to complete training would be to put his all in training and not think about anything else. It was easy to lose track of time in the mountains, as if he had entered into another dimension without the prevalence of any mechanism to tell time such as computer, watch, digital clock, television, radio, all of which the shrine was devoid of. It was better this way, because Mikai could shut out the outside world and focus on the task at hand.

Besides, Mizuki Mayura allowed for little distractions anyway.

As a junior-level gold-medal archer, Tanaka Mikai believed he knew what it was like to have a disciplined training schedule. Yet, Mayura surpassed the severity of the strictest archery instructors he had met, and he had trained under former Olympiads. Despite her gentle ambiance, Mizuki Mayura was a hard master to serve, for she was sharp-tongued and relentless, unforgiving of mistakes and without praise.

"Humph, your archery skills are all right for a kid your age, I guess," scoffed Mayura after Mikai demonstrated to her the one thing he had complete confidence in, _kyudo_. "Well, that's it?"

"I'm the best archer in the prefecture and possibly the nation, in my division," Mikai stated stiffly.

"Well, your fundament archery skills aren't too shabby. But you tell me, can you hit the target if you were blindfolded?" Mayura smirked.

"Eh?" Mikai realized that humor was not a part of Mayura's vocabulary, that she meant everything she said.

Mayura held up a long narrow white piece of cloth with a sweet smile.

"W-what are you doing?" demanded Mikai as she pulled the cloth over his eyes.

Mikai spent the next week practicing hitting bull's eye, an X marked on a tree trunk, blindfolded—for what reason or purpose he did not know.

"You idiot—how many times do I have to tell you: you don't see with your eye. You see with your mind!" Mayura snapped, slapping his hand with a whip she had formed out of a birch branch.

"How can I see with my mind?" retorted Mikai, throwing down his bow and arrows in frustration.

"When you lose one sense, the other senses become heightened. Likewise, you need to awaken the sense that has been asleep in you for so long. The sixth sense, the ability to see without eyes, hear without ears, sense without touch. It's in your blood. You just need to trust yourself," Mayura asserted.

"I can't do it!" stated Mikai, yanking off the blindfold. "It doesn't make sense—how can I sense things without my five senses? That defies all logic."

"Are you giving up already?" Mayura's gray eyes were level, calm as if she already knew his answer. "Before you even learn how to save your mother?"

Picking up the bow one more time with trembling hands, Mikai slipped the blindfold back on. It was still early spring and quite chilly. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and his stomach rumbled from hunger. Not the pleasant hunger right before you knew you were about to have a steaming hot dinner, but a deep, cavernous hunger from the bottom of your guts where you were hungry to the point your stomach ached. He was grimier than he had ever been before as there was no hot water in the mountains, and he had to make do with the ice cold spring water. He had never worn the same clothes for a week before, and his pants were tattered, his shoes worn out, and his blue sweater was no longer blue. He could not concentrate on the bull's eye when the emptiness in his stomach consumed his entire body. His stomach growled and he sneezed. He hoped he was not coming down with pneumonia. _If I get sick here, there is no doctor nearby, no drugstore. If I die here, nobody will ever find my body._

"Concentrate. Is this all the discipline you have?" snapped Mayura, smacking him on the back of the head with her bow. "Your mind power has to learn the ability to transcend your simplistic bodily needs."

Mikai nodded. "I'm sorry. I'll concentrate." He took a deep breath in. The mountains smelled like wood and dirt. See without eyes. Hear without ears. Sense without touch. _Ah, the winds are rustling through the leaves. I can hear the stream in the background. It is so still and silent here. But no, it's not silent—there are so many different sounds that I would never have noticed in the city. And this presence, this suffocating sense that something's there. It's like a flash of light—no, more like the ocean. Even when you close your eyes by the seaside, you can smell the ocean, hear the waves and feel its majesty. So, this must be the presence of Mayura-sama. I can't see, but I can feel it. _

_Strange. I can't see the target, but my arms remember what it feels like to hit the bull's eye. I must simply trust my arms. My body knows_. He automatically drew back the arrow and released it with a snap of his wrist. There was a thud, and even without pulling off his blindfold, he knew he hit the target.

"Humph. Not bad. Took you long enough to get a sense of that. Now we can move on from the preliminary training to the real thing," Mayura stated, not before a small smile escaped from those firmly pressed lips, when she found that the boy was actually smiling for the first time he had reached the mountains.

"Wait, this was just the preliminary training?" Mikai asked, gulping, hunger subsided for the moment.

It was not long before Mikai found out what "the real thing" was. Mayura admittedly pushed him into training that should have been administered over the course of years into a cram course within several months, as there was no time, according to her. In the following weeks, Mikai learned that Mayura only had a beautiful face and calm demeanor. Great One and priestess or not, he knew the real truth—she was not only a Spartan instructor but also had an unexpected sadistic streak. And yet she claimed she had been the "nice" one of the Great Five.

"I refuse!" exclaimed Mikai, staring down at the base of the cliff, swallowing hard. The wind blew harder at the top of the cliff and his knees knocked together. "Do you want to kill me?"

"You won't die if you do it right," Mayura replied, unintentionally malicious. "I told you. You have to master Levitation if you want to learn anything else."

"What the heck is this Levitation?" Mikai demanded, stepping back from the cliff's edge. "All I know is that I certainly don't have a death wish!"

"Levitation is the ability to slow the pull of gravity by exerting force beneath your feet in order to lessen the impact of fall," Mayura replied. "You've seen martial artists do it. Though you should have a larger capacity with your ability to manipulate wind."

"Like flying or something?" Mikai scoffed. "Well, that's bull. I'm not jumping off the cliff—" Mayura simply poked Mikai's back with the edge of her hard wooden bow, sending him tumbling off the edge.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm too young to die!" Mikai screamed. The wind howled by his ears as he fell straight down. _I can't die yet! I simply can't! Miho, I have to see my sister again. Those violet eyes. Karin-senpai, where are you? Will I ever see you again?_ With this awakened desire to live inside him, Mikai suddenly felt more aware of his surroundings more than ever with the rush of blood into his head. Even as he was falling, he felt the wind repelling him._ Become one with the wind. Like a bird of flight. _And suddenly, the wind was no longer pushing him down, but enveloping him, cushioning his fall. Since he was naturally agile, Mikai was able to maneuver his body as he pleased midair and found footing on a ledge, by the steep precipice, using the force to propel him back up to the top of the cliff again with a surge of adrenaline rush.

"See, I told you you'd manage," stated Mayura as Mikai collapsed before her, sweating and heaving.

"You… nearly… killed me," Mikai groaned. "I _never_ want to go through that again."

"Well, you're still alive."

"Crazy old woman. Sadist…" muttered Mikai.

And Mayura merely laughed.

Daybreak to sunset, all the hours when the sun was up was devoted to training. And the summer sun was long. Sunset meant mealtime, and Kai would prepare his meager dinner, most of the time some sort of gruel he concocted up in the big iron cast pot. There was no electricity or gas in the temple, so he cooked over firelight. Eventually, he learned how to conjure fire, the most rudimentary of spells, according to his mentor. He found it easiest to manipulate wind, and once he could control wind, he could control fire.

As he adjusted to his life at the shrine, he slowly forgot about the other world, the lifestyle he came from, and simply focused on living day to day. He slept on a straw pallet on the cold wooden floors of the rundown temple with only a thin blanket for cover. When he ran out of cup noodles, summer saw plentiful of fruits growing from the various trees. When he grew sick of fruits, he dug up various vegetables and roots from the ground which yielded an abundant crop. He learned to distinguish between the poisonous berries and the nonpoisonous ones the hard way—he spent one night heaving and vomiting into the bushes after he gobbled particularly poisonous red berries. Never had he cooked before, but he learned to boil up various roots and turnip in the big iron pot heated by fire from logs he had chopped with his very own hands. He ate not for taste but simply for the sake of survival. Sometimes, Mayura would take pity on him and point out wild mushrooms and herbs he could add to flavor his food; he got the impression when Mayura-sama had been human, she must have been a good cook. At one point, he abandoned utensils and began stuffing his face with his hands, like a savage beast.

When his clothes wore out from the strenuous training and life in the woods, he found in the temple closet coarse men's kimonos stored away and spare zori sandals. The clothes were a lot easier to move around in, and he felt completely transported back into 19th century. When his hair grew out, he used a strip of cloth to tie it back. He washed in the icy stream outside—there was nobody miles around, so it didn't matter. Every moment not spent sleeping and harvesting and preparing food to eat was spent in training. He no longer thought or worried, for every ounce of his energy was spent on survival.

While daytime was devoted to physical training, evenings consisted of many a lesson on spells and the theory of spiritual powers. Mikai had been a good student, but he admittedly almost preferred the arduous physical training to learning of theoretical magic which simply flew over his head; he had always been a concrete, rational, evidence-based thinker, and forcing himself to abandon all rules of physics and logic was difficult at first. Though Mayura was a Shinto priestess, she spent more time teaching him about the way of Tao_,_ Confucianism, Buddhism and Western alchemic practices.

"Why do I have to learn this?" demanded Mikai, staring at the rows of Chinese text of _I Ching,_ the Book of Changes—his classical Chinese reading skills were limited, and his eyes hurt from the flickering candle light, while his entire back was sore from sowing potatoes earlier that morning, and his head swirled from whirling around in the air during training.

"I can just teach you the magic," said Mayura. "But you are a logic-seeking person. That is why I am teaching you the foundation, the routes of magic. I am a Shinto priestess, and my father was a Shinto priest—the Mizuki family comes from a long line of Shinto _onmyouji_. My father was well-versed in divination and protection of humans against evil spirits. I too was skilled in _onmyoudo_."

"Are you going to teach me _onmyoudo_?" asked Mikai.

Mayura shook her head. "No, you're going to learn much beyond that. Magic shouldn't be by the book. You are a free spirit, so I hope one day you will learn to use your powers in a way befitting your personality."

"Were you an _onmyouji_?"

"I did learn the technique from my father. _Onmyoudo_ is one of the rarer esoteric cosmologies that merges beliefs from many different sources, as it took elements from Chinese Taoism, the Five Elements, yin and yang, Buddhism and Indian astrology. Such a rare sort of syncretism can only be found in Japan." Mayura paused. "I think it is this concept that carried forth the shaped the Great Five though it was perhaps Sorcerer Clow Reed, who came after my time, who really perfected the synchronization."

"Synchronization?" repeated Mikai.

"Yes," said Mizuki Mayura, staring up at the crescent moon, speaking more to herself than to Mikai. "The curse of the Dark Ones may one day be broken when the powers of those descended from the Great Five reach synchronization."

None of what Mayura said made any sense to him. Yawning, Mikai tried to stare at the text again. He cared very little about magical theory or annals of Chinese philosophers long since dead or divination and astrology—Karin-senpai had been far more interested in that sort of stuff. Karin. It had been a long time since had thought of her. He wondered how she was doing. Maybe she had found her birth father already. All his life, he had been taught magic was an illusion, a trick of the eye. And yet, he had learned that there were things beyond what the eye could see and the mind could conceive of. It was strangely liberating to be told that everything he did not believe in existed. All the misfortunes that had befallen upon his family were perhaps not by chance. If there was a reason for everything, maybe then, he could find an answer to why such events had occurred.

Many a night, Mikai would be so exhausted from the daytime exercise and fall over on the bamboo wood floor, books tossed aside, arms and legs sprawled out, fast asleep. Then, he would hear a handful from Mayura the next day. But she never did wake him during the night, as if she felt pity for the young boy who had been caught in a web of intricacies laid before by his ancestors, long before he had been born.

Over the next months, Mikai completely mastered Levitation so that he could soar from branch to branch in the mountains with great ease, explore the other side of the mountain and move around with great speed and dexterity, mimicking almost the sense of flying. Never before had he felt so uninhibited and free. He also learned how to control his wield of the wind, bringing him voices and smells, a wider range of awareness of his surrounding, greater clairvoyance and a sudden gateway to a whole new physical, mental and spiritual state. He was not the naïve, haunted boy he was when he entered the mountains shortly after the death of his father. For the first time, he felt powerful and in control, one with nature, above worldly concerns. All he had to focus on was eating, sleeping and training. The only company he had was the wild animals, the birds, and the acerbic tongue of Mizuki Mayura, and it was liberating not to have to care about anybody else and not have to worry about etiquette, manners and consideration.

Mikai had always been a quick learner, and Mayura, while not the most patient person, was an unparallel teacher and a fair one at that.

"You've improved," remarked Mayura watching Mikai master a difficult move involving aerodynamic archery.

It was the first compliment that Mayura had given him, and Mikai blushed.

And a slight gentle look came over Mayura's eyes. "I used to have a little brother once. You remind me of him."

"Did you teach him as well?" asked Mikai.

"He didn't have much spiritual powers," said Mayura with a soft smile. "But he practiced hard and eventually became a better archer than me. You're in fact a direct descendent of Mizuki Keigo."

"I see," said Mikai. He felt a little disappointed learning that he was not a direct descendent of Mayura. _I guess Mayura-sama never did marry then._ Mayura-sama talked very little about herself, so it was strange thinking of her when she was living, what sort of life she had led, her family, her friends. There was an unapproachable air about Mizuki Mayura, and he did not know if this was because she was a Great One, or because she was simply a spirit, or because it was her actual presence.

"Mayura-sama. This locket, this was a gift from somebody special, right?" Mikai said, holding out his silver locket. It was a question he had wanted to ask for some time now.

Hesitantly, Mayura reached out and ran a finger over the engravings and the ruby set in the center of the locket.

"Yes, it was."

"May I ask who gave it to you?"

"If you have time for idle talk go and practice wind camouflage—you're still hopeless at controlling the elements. At this rate, you're not going to leave the mountains till you're an old teetering grandfather."

Mikai looked up at Mayura. He had forgotten that eventually, he would have to leave the mountains. He sighed. Strange enough, he liked it here at the temple. It was comforting and sheltered from the outside world. Here, he did not have to think about anything except himself. He did not have to worry about any other people, and he did not have feel any emotions or think about tomorrow. But one day, he would have to leave the mountains and face the real world again.

But he continued to ask question whenever he got a chance.

"Can you tell me more about the Great Five?" Mikai asked one day as he cracked open roasted chestnuts that he had picked from the ground around chestnut trees. He shivered—it was chillier at nightfall in the mountains. He had found a horse blanket in the shed and had wrapped it around his shoulders to ward off the wind. How long had he been in the mountains? Weeks? Months? Years?

"What do you want to know?" Mayura gazed at the boy who so resembled her younger brother—no Mikai was ten times harder working than her younger brother Keigo had ever been. Then again, Mikai would be considered a lot more mature than any boy his age. It was only times like this when he was relaxed, eating or sleeping, that he revealed that he was no more than a boy barely on the brink of adolescence. He was no longer the sallow, haunted, prep school poster boy he had been when he first came to the mountains, but he was healthily tanned, an inch or two taller, voice slightly deeper and blue-gray eyes somewhat more savage.

"I don't know. Your life back then. What you did as the Great Five. Anything. Who you were before you came to this shrine." Mikai looked up at the gentile woman who claimed to be his ancestor. She looked no older than her twenties. Was her physical appearance the visage she chose to show herself or a true representation of the age she passed away at?

Perhaps Mayura realized that the boy was lonely, that he craved for anything to take him away from his worries, his pain. Even though she had been harsh upon him since the beginning, he had not complained, not whined as a child might when put under such circumstances. In fact, she knew she had been pushing him to his utmost limit. Yet he did not reproach her nor despise her.

She began in her silvery voice, "Well, as you probably know, things were very different back towards the end of the Edo Era. Times were changing with Japan opening to the West, and we were a culture struggling to cling onto tradition when the west of the world was shifting and shifting. These mountains probably were the same, but everything else back then was different. Your town was not yet built and all this land was farmland where people lived in the same village they were born to all their life. Back then, there was just Amamiya Hayashi and me. Amamiya Hayashi was often called the greatest swordsman of Japan, which was an irony because he was probably the most peace-loving person I ever knew. He had green eyes, as green as the forest in the summer, and light brown hair that he wore unbound and short, unlike samurai of the time. He was from a notable samurai family, but he cared little from tradition and rituals and was quite the oddball. But he had a quiet yet ominous presence, for though he was a man of few words, his words were well-listened to."

"Did you… was he to you…" Mikai floundered, too embarrassed to finish his sentence.

Realizing that boy was stammering, Mayura replied, "No, not in that way. He was a close family friend—he used to visit our shrine in Kyoto, and he and Hayami were like brothers to me. Hayashi had the Second Sight, so there was something quite uncanny about him, sometimes. Then, there was Li Shulin—probably the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life—she was from Shanghai and it was said that legions of men cried of broken hearts because of her rejecting them. But she had quite a temper. The only one who could quite match her temper was Lord Landon Reed—he was from England. When I first saw him, with those blue eyes and long golden hair, I thought he must be an angel—that is until he started speaking. Those two eventually married and had a son. Their names may have been forgotten in the modern world, but their son's clearly wasn't— Clow Reed, greatest magician of the East and West."

"Ah, you've spoken of him before. But I've also heard that name before," said Mikai.

"Have you?"

"Mother used to tell Miho and me when we were little that the evil sorcerer Clow Reed would come turn us into mice if we were naughty," he said with a nostalgic smile.

Mayura chuckled. "Clow Reed would cry crocodile tears at such a misrepresentation of his name."

"What was this person like?" Mikai asked, feeling somehow drawn to this mystical Clow Reed.

"I wonder. I was not around by the time he came to prominence. He grew up in England, but he eventually laid his roots in Japan." Mayura's voice trailed off as she gazed into the distance. "His legacy still remains in the form of the Clow Cards."

Mikai wondered what had happened in the time period between the Era of the Great Ones and the Era of the Sorcerer of the East and West. "Well, who was the fifth member?" asked Mikai.

"Oh… That would be Chang Ruichi. He joined us with his twin sister Risa. They were from up north, far, far from here."

If Mikai noticed a slight change of tone in Mayura's voice, he said nothing.

_Chang Ruichi_… The first time he had ever seen anything that resembled emotion in Mayura-sama's eyes. Was it resentment? No… It was more of a rueful, sad expression. And he noticed Mayura was careful not to voluntarily mention that name again.

As Mikai improved in mastering his spiritual power, his evening lessons became more enjoyable as well, because he became eager to learn about the theory behind the powers he possessed. Improving meant he was becoming stronger. Becoming stronger meant he was one step closer to finding a way to heal his mother. Because Mikai had completed the various texts that Mayura had assigned him, and he was showing active interest in learning, Mayura began to spend more time talking to him and explaining any questions he had regarding the texts he had read. It was these hours that Mikai looked most forward to in the day, when Mayura would talk about the adventures of the Great Five.

Mikai liked watching Mayura talk, the warm candlelight flickering over her face. When she talked about the past, her feature softened, and she almost seemed like a girl again, not much older than himself. He was under the impression that Mayura had passed away in her mid-twenties, not too long after the Great Five went their separate ways. Because it was a sensitive subject, he dared not ask about it too directly. "I wonder, why the Circle fell apart if the Great Five were such good friends," he remarked after chuckling over the entertaining story of how young Li Shulin had challenged Hayashi the lazy samurai to a duel over and over again, and Hayashi never once even unsheathed his sword. He had heard so many stories about the two, it was like they were his friends.

Mayura looked slightly sad again. "We all came from different backgrounds and had different powers and ideologies. Landon Reed from England brought knowledge of Western alchemic theory. He had such master of contract magic, perhaps the most scientific approach, and it was a good thing he had not fallen into a dark path, because he could have done much damage. Though he was short-tempered and easily angered, he had a heart of gold. Amamiya Hayashi was perhaps the opposite of Landon in terms of magical approach—his spiritual ability was the strongest of the group. Hayashi of the Third Eye, as he was called, wasn't bound by theory and regulations and went mostly by intuition. That is why his magic probably was the most flexible, because it could take on any shape and form. Nobody ever figure out how much he was holding back. Li Shulin of the infamous Li Clan of Shanghai—they later moved to Hong Kong—brought in her knowledge of the Five Elements and had the most rigid magic; she never picked up much of Landon's western spells, and her divination skills were limited. But she probably became the most successful and powerful of the group and is still recalled as the most venerated Great One of the Li Clan."

"And there was one more. Chang Ruichi-sama and his twin," Mikai said.

"They spent a part of their childhood on a merchant ship and were probably the best traveled out of us, except maybe Landon—they were born of a Japanese mother and a Chinese mercenary, and that is why Ruichi probably started off with the most fluid of powers, with a latent ability that none of us recognized in the beginning," Mayura said briskly. "Combining our forces, we became unprecedentedly empowered. And that also contributed to our downfall. "

"You said Clow Reed is the son of Li Shulin-sama and Lord Landon Reed, right?" Mikai asked. After hearing all the stories of Shulin and Landon's temper-tantrums at each other, he thoroughly believed they deserved each other.

"It's strange, I always thought Hayashi and Shulin would… Well, never mind that." Mayura looked away, as if she had mentioned something she would rather not have.

Mikai realized that the interrelationship between the Great Five was far more complicated than he had ever suspected. He had gradually deduced that the Dark One which had overturned the order of the Great Five was none other than Chang Ruichi, one time friend and ally of the other four. How could someone so close betray everyone?

"Enough questions for today," said Mayura, leaning her head forwards. "So who is this Karin?"

Mikai spewed out a mouthful of green tea. "Excuse me?"

"You were repeating her name in your sleep," remarked Mayura with a mischievous twinkle in her gray eyes. "Your girlfriend?"

Mikai blushed slightly and stammered, "No—no!"

"Oh. One-sided crush?" Mayura said a little more sympathetically. "Do you miss her?"

After all these months, before his eyes flashed an image of a girl with hair as golden as the sun and eyes a pale violet like wisteria swaying in the wind. "Ah, Karin-senpai… She disappeared one day without saying a word. I'll probably never see her again."

"It is a small world," remarked Mayura. "If you were meant to be, then your path would cross again. It's the inevitability of human relationships."

At that time, Mikai did not know what Mayura meant, and he left it at that.

Because Mikai had read most of the books that Mayura had provided him—after all, he had photographic memory—Mayura spent more evenings talking to him now about the past.

"We each had a patron animal. Amamiya Hayashi had a silver wolf. As you know, we Japanese revere wolves as being sacred gods. Because Li Shulin didn't want to be out-beaten by Hayashi, she called upon a dragon, the sacred creature heavenly creature worshipped by the Chinese who are said to be descendents of the dragon. Landon chose a white unicorn, known for their healing powers in the West."

"What was yours?" asked Mikai.

"Guess."

Mikai closed his eyes. He could see Mayura extend her arms and a brilliant white feathered bird perching on her slender fingers. "A bird."

"That's right. I captured a phoenix, or rather, the white phoenix captured me. Garada was his name." Mayura paused.

"What happened to Garada-sama?" Mikai asked, looking around the world, expecting the bird to fly out of a corner.

"Maybe he's found a new master," said Mayura with a pout. "Birds are fickle creatures, mind you, if you plan on taking on a familiar. I recommend a dog. Dogs are stupid and loyal to the point of idiocy."

"Who was the strongest of the five?" asked Mikai.

"We had our strengths and weaknesses. The Great Five were the most powerful fellowship of magicians in two centuries. We were powerful because we represented a bond of two culture of magic and a fusion of every sort of magic, the power of elements and the heavenly bodies, of light and dark, contract magic and clairvoyance. Together, we were absolute and undefeatable, and were strong because we were united and comrades. At one point, we sought to discover new types of magic in order to combine our powers and push the limits of sorcery."

Mikai blinked. "You can discover knew magic?"

"We were so powerful and being with each other magnified our powers to a point that we needed to safeguard our powers in order not to upset the equilibrium. It was initially Landon's idea. Both Western and Eastern magic like using focal objects and vesting power in a special item. So, we decided to vest our powers in a special item, sort of as a storage mechanism but also as a way that even after our death, a fragment of our powers will still remain. Landon chose a star sapphire ring that his mother had given him. Shulin naturally chose the Li Clan Five Force Sword. Hayashi was different and instead of a family heirloom, he chose a pendant that he always wore called the Eye of the Dragon. It's a mystical gem that has been handed down from generation to generation of the best swordsman of the nation. Some say it's a crystal, some say it's an uncarved diamond and others say it really is the eye of the dragon that the first warrior took as a token of his victory. As for myself, you can probably guess which item I chose."

"It was the Mirror of Truth, wasn't it?" said Mikai with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"That is correct. The item I chose was the Mirror of Truth, a mystical mirror that is said to reflect not the physical appearance but the true reflection of the beholder. It is an item that was forged in Europe but came into the holds of the Mizuki shrine."

"And the Dark One? What did he choose?" asked Mikai.

"Ruichi… He was the last person to choose an item; he was the only one of us to create a new object. He obtained a ruby stone, with which he wrought ruby earrings. He kept one side and gave his sister Risa the other one." Mayura paused. "You asked how you can save your mother. Your mother is suffering from the remnants of one of the most sordid and darkest of dark forces unleashed by the Dark One. Some eight years before you were born, Amamiya Nadeshiko and Li Ryuuren sealed the Plague within their bodies. Their alliance were probably the greatest joining of powers since the Great Ones. But they were not strong enough. Mizuki Miara, also sealed a part of the Plague within her body."

Mikai stared up at the priestess, wide-eyed. "That's okaa-san's disease. The doctors did not know what it was."

"They wouldn't. It's incurable through modern medical science," replied Mayura.

"Then how? How will I cure my mother?"

"Nadeshiko and Ryuuren failed because they were not able to gather the descendents of the Great Five," said Mayura. "For the first time in over a century, the descendents of an Amamiya, Li, Mizuki and Chang had gathered in one spot, all save a Reed. And they only had three of the Five Force Treasures at that time, the sapphire ring, the Mirror and the Five Force Sword. For generations, the Li Clan had been fixated on gathering the Five Force Treasures. They have been eager to get hold of the Mirror of Truth from the Mizuki family for years. At that time, the Li Clan already had the sapphire ring, which Landon had given to Shulin when he proposed to her, and the Clan's centuries old sword. The Li Clan emerged as the strongest powerhouse of the East in the 20th century. The Amamiya pendant had long since disappeared and its whereabouts are not known to date. And the Dark Ones still had the ruby earrings. Thus, even though Ryuuren might perhaps be the strongest Chosen One of the Li Clan since Shulin and Nadeshiko had clairvoyance which comes along only once in a century, the best they could do was to temporarily seal the Plague within their bodies."

"What happened to them?" Mikai asked.

"They're both dead," replied Mayura. "Your mother was saved because she did not have to absorb a lot of the shock. But soon, the new Dark Ones will emerge. And you have to be prepared for that."

"You haven't called me here to help me find a way save my mother. You are preparing me for a battle, aren't you?" said Mikai quietly.

"Finding a way to defeat the Dark Ones is the way to save not only your mother but humanity," said Mayura. "I am providing you the skills to fight. What you do with the skills you have obtained is up to you."

"Nobody could defeat the Dark Ones in a century and a half," said Mikai. "When the greatest magicians of the world failed, what chance do I have against them?"

"Both you and your sister are far more powerful than your mother ever was," said Mayura.

"Miho-chan has powers as well?" Mikai asked.

"It's rare that both siblings have such a strong dominant spiritual power," said Mayura. "But the Mizukis come from a long line of great omyouji and priests from even before the Edo era. I think in your cases, you both draw upon different elements of power. Currently, a new Clow Card Mistress has been appointed as Clow Reed's successor. She may become more powerful than even Clow."

"Wow, I wonder what kind of great magician she must be," said Mikai. He pictured a grand and stately woman in the veins of the Great Five. Would she be as proud and beautiful as Shulin-sama? Or maybe gentle and compassionate like Mayura-sama. Or maybe a crooked and omnipotent female version of sorcerer Clow Reed.

"The Li Clan's new Chosen One is the youngest one in the history of the Clan, and he oddly enough has aligned himself with the Card Mistress rather than battle her out for the role of becoming the new Card Master. Another one of my descendents has also been watching over them. And there are rumors that Clow Reed himself has reincarnated himself."

"Clow Reed?" Mikai repeated. "Then why did he appoint a successor?"

"He must have had his reasons." Mayura glanced at him his narrowed eyes. "Then there's you."

"Why did you choose me?" asked Mikai.

"I have been watching out the mirror for a long time, waiting for the One."

"The One?" Mikai blinked.

"The Great Five, we were a crafty bunch," replied Mayura. "We were not just magicians; we were innovators. We were not content with just practicing magic; we were intent on stretching all bounds of magic and experimenting with what human limit is."

"The Five Treasures were one of your 'experiments,' I suppose?" asked Kai.

"Yes. It was an ultimate experiment to store power. Magicians from the days of Ancient Egypt have been using various items and amulets to store power and protect the user. But with the Five Treasures, we were able to trigger the treasures to have powers magnified in multitude when all five were gathered together. That effect was possible because of the pre-existing bond of us five magicians." Sometimes, when Mayura talked of yonder days, her gray eyes had a far off look, and a gentle smile came to her lips.

All this while, Mikai had thought Mayura to be a sad, lonely haunted person. But no, she was now because she was dead. But in life, she would have been proud but with humility, kind but merciless and vibrant because of the link with her friends. He thought just, once, he would have liked to see the Circle in its full glory, and Mayura as the teenage girl from Edo Japan.

One late autumn day when the mountains faded from a deep orange amber to a dull gray as the first chill settled over the summit, out of the blue, Mizuki Mayura declared, "I'm bored with you now. I've taught you everything you can learn, and there's nothing left for me to do for you."

"But I have so much more I need to learn—we're still in the middle of transmutations and onmyouji wards," Mikai protested. "And you haven't told me how to cure my mother's illness."

"You won't learn them here in these mountains," Mayura replied. "To cure your mother's illness, you will have to get the power of the Five Force Treasures."

"The Five Force Treasures?"

"Yes, the relics left behind by myself and my companions I told you about. Amamiya's diamond necklace, Shulin's sword, Landon's sapphire ring, and Ruichi's ruby earrings. You've already lost the first one… The Mizuki Mirror of Truth."

"But how am I supposed to find these lost treasures?" It was not that Mikai hadn't figured this out already. But he had grown used to life in the mountains in the shrine with Mayura.

"Go seek a man by the name of Reed."

"Who is he?"

"He will teach you the means of finding the Five Force Treasures," was Mayura's reply.

"You can't teach me that?"

"No, only he can."

"Reed… Is he related to the Great One Lord Landon Reed?" Mikai asked. A frown came over his brows. "This 'Reed' person, he's not another g-ghost?"

Mayura scowled. "For your information, I'm not a _ghost_, I'm an imprint of a memory. Once you leave, this physical body will disappear from the shrine forever because it has served its purpose. And I can also reassure you that Reed will be a solid, living human. He is a distant descendant of Lord Landon Reed's older brother. Knowing the Reed sadistic streak, I wish you the best with him."

"No one can be too bad after you," replied Mikai.

"Oh, you can only say that because you haven't met the rest of the bunch," Mayura stated with a chuckle. "As I keep remind you, I was actually the 'nice one,' of the group, believe it or not."

At this, Mikai smiled. Mayura's ash-gray eyes were filled with warmth as she gazed at the boy, a little taller, leaner, voice a shade deeper, slightly cracking, and a lot more confident than the hounded kid who had arrived at the shrine half a year ago.

Mayura blinked slowly. "Mikai, you once asked me why I chose you. I thought if it was you, you would understand the decision I chose to make long ago. The decision which changed the course of history forever."

"The silver locket," Mikai began slowly. "Ruichi-sama gave it to you, didn't he?"

For the first time, Mayura looked taken aback. "Yes. When Ruichi created his Five Force Treasure, he vested his power in a large ruby. He split that ruby stone into three stones. Two became the Dark One's ruby earrings. And the last stone, he set in a silver locket."

Mayura's words sank into Mikai. He reached to the chain and clasped the locket, with a gleaming pigeon's blood red ruby embedded in the center. It must have been hard enough for Hayashi-sama and the others to turn their backs and defeat a man that had once been such close friend. But Mayura had loved Ruichi. How much more painful must have it been for her to kill the man that she loved?

"Mikai, the path you take may be a lonely one," said Mayura, clasping his cheeks with her cold, clammy hands.

"But you will definitely find friends along the way who accept you as you are. And if you do, don't push them away. Because I believe in you, that you will make wiser choices than I have. I've taught you all I know not to walk my path but to carve your own. So don't despair and don't give into vengeance. If you remember that, I'm sure everything's going to turn out all right."

"Thank you Mayura-sama," he said, feeling a tightness in his throat.

"Thank me once you have accomplished what you have set out to do," Mayura replied, her long auburn hair whipping back even on the windless day. Even as she spoke her last words, her figure blurred into the purple mist, as heavy as that first day Mikai had arrived to the mountains.

And so, half a year after coming to the Mount Kumatori, Tanaka Mikai left with nothing on his back but the same duffel bag he had brought, and clothes now tattered and too tight on him. His hair was short again, shaggier since he had cut his hair that he had worn tied back with a knife without a mirror. But he left a changed person, one who had awakened to the powers within him. When he looked back again at the shrine, Mizuki Mayura was no longer there. He did not think he would see her again. Over the months, he had grown reliant on her companionship; her harshness concealed a tender, maternal gentility, and her eyes held wisdom and shadows unknown to those of the living. Had he had more time, he wished he could have learned the reason behind the sadness in her eyes.

But he had a more urgent task at hand. A man by the name of Reed was the key to finding the Five Force Treasures.

As he came closer and closer to the base of the mountain, he began to see more people. Old men hiking, some bikes.

Now, there were cars and convenience stores.

Voices. Electricity. The rumbling of the train on the tracks. Civilization.

The time that had paused while he was in the Mizuki Shrine was flowing again.

Back to Kaitou Magician Origins Page

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Wish-chan: (April 10, 2012)

This chapter was completed years ago, but I think I withheld it because of possible spoilers. It's not a terribly eventful chapter, but it's an informative one, I believe. Mizuki Mayura is an interesting character, and I feel like she's one of the characters that is least known about of the Great Five before. So I'm glad to have a chance to explore her character.

There are so many back stories very clear in my mind that I think everyone will know about, but then I remember I haven't posted them up yet. This chapter explains why Kai knows a lot more about what's going on even if he doesn't show it oftentimes, since he's the only one who has been trained directly under a Great Five member. Syaoran knows a lot too, but what he knows is skewed with the Li Clan perspective hence it's biased. Eriol too holds his own biases as Clow Reed, though he doesn't talk about it (hence Kero-chan, Yue, Ruby Moon and Spinel-chan only know so much as what Clow Reed knows). Sakura's clueless not because she wants to be but because she knows pretty much what Kero-chan tells her (and Kero is an extension of Clow). Mayura of the Great Five probably was most like Tomoyo, an observer, hence her view is the least biased of the Great Five. But who knows.

Kaitou Magician is a character better left mysterious, in my opinion. But nonetheless, I am enjoying writing Tanaka Mikai's back story. Next chapter will be interesting though as a character I've been dying to introduce will finally appear. I also believe that starting from next chapter, the story is going to turn a little darker. But the real action would begin.

Mizuki Kai's popularity with readers always floors me. As I always say, he was the product of a writer's block. It's funny because I'm very empathetic with Tanaka Mikai but have not an ounce of sympathy for Kai and the stupid things he does.

Please check out the newest Young Kai and Kara fanart.

I've finally caught up with emails, and I promise I do get back to replying them eventually at hopeluvpeace [at] hotmail [dot] com. If you haven't already, check out the Yahoo New Trials Ring at groups [dot] yahoo [dot] com/group/newtrialsring**. **For the latest New Trials updates and other news, check out my blog at wishluv [dot] blogspot [dot] com and find my artwork at wishluv [dot]deviantart [dot] com. Thank you everybody for being so patient and continuing to support New Trials all these years.


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